01-06-2021 The Asian Independent

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Vol : 05 : #68 01-06-2021 to 15-06-2021
Time has come for GLOBAL
pandemic treaty: WHO Chief
Geneva : The Covid-19 pandemic
has proved that the world needs a
pandemic treaty to strengthen both
the World Health Organization
(WHO) and global health security,
WHO Director-General Tedros
Adhanom Ghebreyesus said on
Tuesday.
"This is an idea whose time has
come," said Ghebreyesus, in his closing
remarks at the WHO's 74th
World Health Assembly (WHA),
which took placee online from May
24 to Tuesday. Ghebreyesus said that
the defining characteristic of the pandemic
is the lack of sharing: of data,
information, pathogens, technologies
and resources.
"A treaty would foster improved
sharing, trust and accountability, and
provide the solid foundation on
which to build other mechanisms for
global health security.
"Pandemics are a threat to all of
us. So we must work together to
build a healthier, safer, fairer future -
- for all of us," he said. At the 2021
WHA, which had the theme "Ending
this pandemic, preventing the next
one", Ghebreyesus also called for a
stronger and better-financed WHO.
"At present, pathogens have
greater power than WHO. They are
emerging more frequently in a planet
out of balance.
They exploit our interconnectedness
and expose our inequities and
divisions" he noted. "The safety of
the world's people cannot rely solely
on the goodwill of governments,"
Ghebreyesus said, adding the need
for more resources and authority
along with an international treaty to
connect countries that would
strengthen the world's health security.
Ghebreyesus noted that the continuing
decline in global Covid cases
and deaths is very encouraging, "but
it would be a monumental error for
any country to think the danger has
passed".
The world still faces "the same
vulnerabilities that allowed a small
outbreak to become a global pandemic",
he said.
Imran condemns terror
attacks in Balochistan
Islamabad : Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan on
Tuesday strongly condemned the two separate terror attacks that
left four soldiers dead in Balochistan provinc.
In a tweet, Khan sent his condolences to the bereaved families,
saying the country will continue its fight against the terrorists
and will not allow them to sabotage peace and development
in Balochistan, reports Xinhua news agency.
In a statement early Tuesday morning, the military's media
wing Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) said the terrorists
carried out two separate attacks including one in the provincial
capital of Quetta in which the militants attacked a check post of
the paramilitary troops Frontier Corps.
During the exchange of fire, four to five terrorists were killed
while seven to eight others injured.
The military lost four soldiers and six others sustained
injuries, the ISPR said.
In the second incident, the terrorists targeted a vehicle of the
Frontier Corps with an improvised explosive device (IED) at
Turbat, injuring two soldiers.
"Such coward acts by inimical elements backed by anti-state
forces and hostile intelligence agencies cannot sabotage the
hard-earned peace and prosperity in Balochistan. "Security
forces are determined to neutralise their nefarious designs even
at the cost of blood and lives," the ISPR statement added.
SC seeks details of PM Cares Fund scheme
to help kids orphaned by Covid-19
New Delhi : The Supreme
Court on Tuesday asked the
Centre to provide details of the
scheme recently announced
under PM Cares Fund to help
children who were orphaned
due to Covid and how the
scheme will be implemented.
Amicus curiae, advocate
Gaurav Agrawal submitted
before the top court that the
government announced a
scheme on May 29 to benefit
children orphaned due to the
pandemic. He added that they
don't know yet how many children
are beneficiaries of this
scheme, though it said children
who have lost parents, adoptive
parent, etc would be its beneficiaries.
A bench comprising Justices
L. Nageswara Rao and
Aniruddha Bose asked the
Centre's counsel to file an affidavit
regarding the announcement
of package made under
PM Cares Fund. Additional
Solicitor General Aishwarya
Bhati submitted that the details
of the scheme, including identification of
beneficiaries would be filed before the
court.
According to the scheme, all children
who lost both parents or a surviving parent,
legal guardian or adoptive parents due to
Covid-19 disease will be supported by a
corpus of Rs 10 lakh from the PM Cares
Fund. This corpus will be used for providing
a monthly stipend for five years when
the children are 18 years of age.
The top court was hearing an application
filed in a suo motu matter on prevention
of Covid-19 in child care institutions
across the country. According to
an affidavit filed by the National
Commission for Protection of
Child Rights (NCPCR), the pandemic
orphaned over 1,700 children,
led to 140 children being
abandoned while more
than7,400 children lost one of
their parents.
The NCPCR counsel had
informed the court that a web
portal "Bal Swaraj" was
launched, through which each
district can upload information
about children during the pandemic.
The top court, last week,
had directed to all states to
upload data beginning March
2020 by May 29 and allowed the
NCPCR to file its response in the
matter. Acting on Agrawal's suggestion,
the top court told
Telanagana, Tamil Nadu,
Karnataka, Kerala, Gujarat,
Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh,
Maharashtra, Bihar, and
Jharkhand to appoint a nodal
officer who would interact with
the advocate regarding necessary
information of orphans. The
top court noted that at present there 9,000
such children who've lost both or one parent.
The counsel for NCPCR submitted that
state governments have not been able to
provide complete information regarding
children who have lost their parents due to
the pandemic.

2
01-06-2021 to 15-06-2021 NEWS
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SL begins criminal probe on
burning container ship
Colombo : Sri Lanka's Criminal
Investigations Department
announced that it had appointed a
10-member team of detectives to
investigate the incidents surrounding
the burning X-Press Pearl container
ship in the waters off the
Colombo Harbour, the local media
reported. The Department's
announcement on Monday came
after the Director-General of the
Marine Environment Protection
Authority (MEPA) filed a complaint
with the Harbour Police on
May 23 over the environmental
destruction caused by the fire
onboard the Singapore-flagged vessel,
Xinhua news agency reported.
The police said the officers from the
Criminal Investigations Department
recorded statements from the captain and
chief engineer of the vessel at a hotel in
Colombo where the crew is undergoing
quarantine.
Statements will be recorded from the
Dhaka : Bangladesh police
on Tuesday announced the
arrest of a suspected wildlife
poacher believed to have killed
at least 70 endangered tigers in
more than two decades.
The suspect, Habib
Talukder, 50, was sent to jail
pending trial after he was
arrested on May 29 at his home
adjacent to the Sundarbans
mangrove forest, local police
chief Saidur Rahman told dpa
news agency.
Wanted in a number of cases
filed under the wildlife conservation
law, Talukder, who was
locally known as 'Tiger Habib'
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other crew members in the near future, the
police said. The X Press Pearl ship was carrying
1,486 containers with 25 tonnes of
nitric acid and several other chemicals and
cosmetics from the port of Hazira, India,
on May 15. The vessel sent out a distress
call while being close to the Colombo Port
on May 20, and soon caught fire resulting
for his hunting skills, had been
on the run for a long time,
Rahman said.
He might have links with
gangs operating in the
5 Kerala cops to be dismissed following custodial death probe
Thiruvananthapuram : Five police
officials found guilty in connection with
a custodial death in Kerala's Idukki in
2019, will be dismissed from service and
legal proceedings will also be taken
against them, as per recommendations of
the Justice K. Narayana Kurup (retd)
Commission, the Kerala Assembly was
told on Tuesday.
The action taken report placed in the
Assembly stated that those who will be
dismissed from service are Sub-
Inspector Sabu, ASI Roy, driver Niyaz,
and two civil police officers, Jithin and
Regimon. The sixth accused was Home
Guard James.
The probe report also recommended
punishment for three medical professionals.
It was also decided to give a compensation
of Rs 45 lakh to the family of the
deceased.
Rajkumar, 49, a small-time financial
agent, died in custody on June 21, 2019
after allegedly being subjected to brutal
Sundarbans, spanning
between Bangladesh
and India, for poaching
wild animals and profiting
from selling their
pelts, bones, teeth and
raw meat on the black
market, the officer said.
Talukder began his
career as a wild honey
collector in the mangrove
forest, and eventually
become a
wildlife hunter in course of
time, forest official Joynal
Abadin said.
The man, who frequently
ventured into the forest despite
in the Sri Lankan Navy dispatching
vessels to bring the fire under
control.
Last week, the MEPA said a
major environmental disaster
was expected following the burning
of the vessel and the impact
was being assessed. General
Manager of the MEPA, Terney
Pradeep said the coast line from
the south along the west coast
had debris washed ashore and the
public had been strongly advised
not to touch any of the debris as
it could contain hazardous material.
The government said a large
amount of marine life had been killed as a
result of the pollution from the ship.
The government has decided to pay a
certain amount of compensation for the
fishing community who had to suspend
activities incurring losses of their daily
income and those who are involved in
related industries.
B'desh arrests poaching suspect
believed to have killed 70 tigers
a ban on him, is formally
charged for the hunting of three
tigers and five deer, the official
said. But, Talukder told locals
that he had hunted as many as
70 big cats since he had first
killed a tiger in his mid 20s,
Abadin said. "We could not
verify his claim yet," he said.
Bangladesh's Forest
Department study in 2019
found a total of 114 Bengal
tigers in its part of Sundarbans,
a Unesco heritage site.
But their population registered
a record low of 106 in
2015 from 440 in 2004, according
to previous surveys.
third degree torture at the
Nedumkandam police station in Idukki.
According to reports, Rajkumar was
rounded up on June 12 by a group of
people who he owed money to, and
handed over to the Nedumkandam
police. Police however, recorded his
arrest on June 16 and later shifted him to
the state-run Peerumedu Taluk Hospital,
where he died on June 21.
Though the post-mortem mentioned
pneumonia as the cause of death, the
autopsy report revealed 22 injury marks
on Rajkumar's body, most below the
thighs, indicating that he was subjected
to third degree torture while in custody.
Following a huge opposition
onslaught both inside and outside the
Assembly, the state government, led by
Pinarayi Vijayan, gave the nod for a judicial
probe and seasoned judge Kurup
began by exhuming the body to ascertain
the actual cause of death and took statements
from numerous people before he
submitted his final report.
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China reports human infection
of H10N3 avian influenza
Beijing : A human infection with the H10N3 strain of avian
influenza has been found
in China's Jiangsu
province, the National
Health
Commission
(NHC) said on Tuesday.
The patient, a 41-
year-old man in
Zhenjiang city, developed
fever and other
symptoms on April 23
and was hospitalised on
April 28, Xinhua news
agency quoted the NHC
as saying. He is now in
stable condition and has broadly met the standards for discharge,
the Commission noted.
All close contacts of the patient in Jiangsu have been placed
under medical observation and emergency monitoring has been
initiated, said the NHC, adding that nothing abnormal has been
detected. The Chinese Centre for Disease Control and Prevention
carried out whole-genome sequencing of the specimen on May
28 and the result was positive for the H10N3 virus.
The whole-genome analysis shows that the avian-origin virus
is not effectively infectious to humans, according to experts, who
believe it poses a "very low" risk of large-scale outbreak.
Wrong interpretation of rule change
on liquor policy: Delhi govt
Delhi : Soon after it was reported that the Delhi Government
has allowed the home delivery of
liquor through mobile apps or websites
under the amended excise rules,
the Chief Minister's office said it is
wrong interpretation of the rule
change. "It is a slightly wrong interpretation
of a rule change, the government
will issue statement in this
regard," the office of Delhi Chief
Minister said on Tuesday morning.
The Delhi government has permitted
home delivery of Indian and foreign liquor as Covid-19 restrictions
continue to be in place in the city. Liquor can be ordered for
home delivery in Delhi through online portals as part of the new
excise policy.
The notification issued by the Delhi government regarding
new liquor policy, stated, "The licensee shall make delivery of
liquor at the residences only if order is received through mobile
app or online web portal and no delivery shall be made to any
hostel, office and institution." However, the notification clearly
mentioned that only holders of L-13 licence will be allowed to
carry out home deliveries, and not every liquor outlet in the city.
Now, under the new excise rules, home delivery of liquor has
been allowed through mobile app and portals in Delhi. However,
this does not mean liquor shops across Delhi will be allowed to
deliver alcohol, the government clarified.

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ASIA
2020-21 darkest year of economy
in four decades: Chidambaram
New Delhi : Former
Finance Minister and senior
Congress leader P.
Chidambaram on Tuesday
said that 2020-21 has been
the darkest year of the economy
in four decades and that
the government should print
more money if necessary as
suggested by several economists,
including Nobel
Laureate Abhijit Banerjee.
"We may note that
Banerjee has called for printing
more money and increasing
the spending, though
Finance Minister Nirmala
Sitharaman in her recent
interviews to various newspapers
defended the government's
misguided and disastrous policies."
Earlier addressing a press conference,
Chidambaram virtually attacked the government
over the GDP numbers.
He said, "As expected, the GDP at constant
prices recorded a negative growth of
(-) 7.3 per cent, the first time India has
recorded negative annual growth since
1979-80.
"2020-21 has been the darkest year of
the economy in four decades. The performance
in the four quarters of 2020-21 tells
the story. The first two quarters witnessed a
recession (-24.4 and -7.4 per cent). The
performance in the third and fourth quarters
did not herald a recovery. The estimated
rates of 0.5 per cent and 1.6 per cent
were due to a very low base of 3.3 and 3.0
per cent in the corresponding quarters of
the previous year. Besides, these rates
come with a number of caveats," the senior
Congress leader added.
Chidambaram alleged that when the
first wave of the Covid pandemic appeared
to subside last year, the Finance Minister
and her Chief Economic Adviser began to
sell the story of a recovery. "They saw
"green shoots" when no one else did. They
predicted a V-shaped recovery. It was a
false story and we had expressed our strong
reservations and warned there were no
signs of a recovery. We had pointed out that
what the economy needed was a strong
dose of stimulus, including increased government
expenditure, direct transfers of
cash to the poor and liberal distribution of
free rations. Our pleas fell on deaf ears, and
the result is a negative growth of (-) 7.3 per
cent." What is most worrying is that the per
capita GDP has fallen below Rs 1 lakh, to
Rs 99,694. In percentage terms it is a
decline of (-) 8.2 per cent over the previous
year. It is lower than the level achieved in
2018-19 (and maybe even
2017-18). The deeply worrying
conclusion is that
most Indians are poorer than
they were two years ago.
Good advice by distinguished
economists and
renowned institutions has
been rebuffed. World-wide
experience has been
ignored. Suggestions on fiscal
expansion and cash
transfers have been turned
down. Hollow packages like
Atmanirbhar Bharat have
fallen flat.
We are glad that the two
leading chambers of business
and industry -- CII and
FICCI -- have, in the last
few days, echoed our views and pleaded
for fiscal expansion, including cash transfers
to the poor.
The RBI's monthly review has flagged
the 'demand shock' and its consequences.
The CMIE report on loss of jobs and
growing unemployment is alarming. The
research and survey reports of Aziz Premji
University have concluded that 23 crore
people have been pushed below the poverty
line and into indebtedness.
The second wave of the pandemic is
upon us. So far, it seems to be following
the same pattern as the first wave, except
that it has wrought more damage in terms
of numbers of infections and deaths.
If 2021-22 should not go the same way
as 2020-21 did, the government must wake
up, admit its errors of commission and
omission, reverse its policies and heed the
advice of economists and the Opposition.
01-06-2021 to 15-06-2021
3
CBI books Gujarat-based firm,
its directors for cheating banks
New Delhi : The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) said on
Tuesday that it has registered a case against a Gujarat-based company
and its four directors for cheating banks to the tune of Rs 678
crore besides carrying out searches at six places. A CBI spokesperson
said that the agency has booked Vimal Oil & Foods Ltd,
Mehsana, its directors Jayeshbai Chandubhai Patel, Mukeshkumar
Naranbhai Patel, Ditin Narayanbhai Patel and Mona Jigneshbhai
Acharya and unknown public servants and others. The official said
that the CBI registered the case on a complaint filed by the Bank
of India.
He said that in the complaint, it was alleged that the accused
were sanctioned various credit facilities amounting to Rs 810
crore by a consortium of Bank of India (lead bank) and eight other
member banks. The official said that it was further alleged that the
accused had cheated the said consortium of banks between 2014
and 2017 through malafide activities, such as diversion of loan
funds; conducting majority of sale transactions with certain selective
parties, which were accommodative in nature; maintaining the
bank accounts outside the consortium member banks; transacting
sales with such parties which were not in activities of trading of
edible oil or manufacturing; purchasing the material at inflated
invoice prices and routing of revenue proceeds in the bank
accounts outside the consortium banks etc. "An alleged loss of Rs
678.93 crore was caused to the lending banks," he said. The official
said that the CBI teams carried out searches at six places,
including the premises of the accused persons.
Newly discovered African 'climate
seesaw' drove human evolution
New Delhi : Ancient El Nino-like
weather patterns were the primary
drivers of environmental change in
sub-Saharan Africa when humans
were evolving, according to research
involving UCL, London's university.
Scientists have shown that over the
last 620,000 years these alternately
wet and dry patterns had more profound
impacts in sub-Saharan Africa
than colder, dryer glacial-interglacial
cycles, which until now have been
more commonly linked to human evolution.
Professor Mark Maslin of UCL
Geography, who contributed to the
international study, published in
Proceedings of the National Academy
of Sciences of the United States of
America (PNAS), said the findings
challenge previous theories on the
impact of changes in the climate on
the earliest ancestors.
"The detailed analysis of the past
climate of Africa, led by Stefanie
Kaboth-Bahr (University of Potsdam),
has revealed an oscillation between
wet and dry conditions across the continent.
This means for at least the last
600,000 years there has been continual
environmental change as wet lush
conditions moved from the east to the
west and then back again.
"This drove significant changes in
plant and animal migration patterns
and contributed to the evolution of
new hominin species. This study
shows that the long-term El Nino and
Southern Oscillation (ENSO)-like climate
shifts across Africa had a profound
effect on the evolution of early
humans." It is widely accepted that climate
change drove the evolution of our
species in Africa, but the exact character
of that change and its impacts have
not been fully understood. Glacialinterglacial
cycles strongly impact patterns
of climate change in many parts
of the world and were also assumed to
regulate environmental changes in
Africa during the critical period of
human evolution. In this latest
research, this influence of glacialinterglacial
cycles has been challenged
as the scientists identified ancient El
Nino-like weather patterns as the drivers
of major climate changes in Africa,
allowing them to re-evaluate the existing
climatic framework of human evolution.
To arrive at this conclusion,
they integrated 11 climate archives
from across Africa covering the past
620,000 years to generate a comprehensive
spatial picture of when and
where wet or dry conditions prevailed
over the continent.
Stefanie Kaboth-Bahr of the
University of Potsdam, who led the
study, said: "We were surprised to find
a distinct climatic east-west 'seesaw'
very akin to the pattern produced by
the weather phenomena of El Nino
that today profoundly influences precipitation
distribution in Africa."
The authors infer that the effects of
the tropical Pacific Ocean on the socalled
'Walker Circulation' -- a belt of
convection cells along the equator that
impact the rainfall and aridity of the
tropics -- were the prime driver of this
climate seesaw. The data clearly
shows that the wet and dry regions
shifted between the east and west of
the African continent on timescales of
approximately 100,000 years, with
each of the climatic shifts being
accompanied by major turnovers in
flora and mammal fauna. Kaboth-Bahr
added: "This alternation between dry
and wet periods appeared to have governed
the dispersion and evolution of
vegetation as well as mammals in eastern
and western Africa. The resultant
environmental patchwork was likely
to have been a critical component of
human evolution and early demography
as well." The scientists are keen to
point that although climate change
was certainly not the sole factor driving
early human evolution, the new
study nevertheless provides a novel
perspective on the tight link between
environmental fluctuations and the
origin of our early ancestors.
Kaboth-Bahr continued: "Re-evaluating
these patterns of stasis, change
and extinction through a new climatic
framework will yield new insights into
the deep human past. This does not
mean that people were helpless in the
face of climatic changes but shifting
habitat availability would certainly
have impacted patterns of demography,
and ultimately the genetic
exchanges that underpin human evolution."

4
01-06-2021 to 15-06-2021 ASIA
www.theasianindependent.co.uk
Japan rushes hundreds of ventilators
to showcase special ties with India
New Delhi : Over the last four
days, Japan has rushed 800 ventilators
and 500 oxygen concentrators to
India, showcasing Tokyo and New
Delhis special ties as Indo-Pacific
partners.
Japan handed over these ventilators
and oxygen concentrators to India on
May 28, 30 and 31.
The Japanese government has
already announced that it would hand
over 1,800 ventilators and 2,800 oxygen
concentrators to India. The latest
handover completes the first phase of
medical assistance to India that began
on May 14.
"We plan to hand over the remaining
ventilators and oxygen concentrators
in the near future," the Japanese
foreign ministry said on Tuesday.
"Japan stands with India, our friend
and partner, in her efforts to fight
against the Covid-19 pandemic
through this emergency assistance,
and hopes that Japan's assistance will
contribute to alleviating and containing
the Covid-19 situation in India,"
the ministry added.
Japanese assistance to India follows
two top meetings e one between Prime
Minister Narendra Modi and his
Japanese counterpart Suga Yoshihide.
This meeting on April 26 was followed
up by another nuts-and-bolts
interaction between External Affairs
'Significant chance for ending UK
Covid lockdown plan to change'
Minister S. Jaishankar and foreign
minister Motegi Toshimitsu on the
sidelines of G7 Foreign and
Development Ministers' Meeting in
London, earlier this month.
Both meetings spotlighted that
India and Japan's special role in the
Indo-Pacific provided the strategic
impulse for intensive collaboration.
"The two leaders confirmed the
importance of Japan-India bilateral
cooperation and multilateral cooperation,
including Japan-Australia-India-
U.S. quadrilateral cooperation,
towards realizing a Free and Open
Indo-Pacific. They also shared the
view to continue their effort on building
a rules-based free and open international
order," a readout of the statement
after Modi-Yoshihide telephone
talk said. Besides the duo, going
beyond health, listed the areas for joint
forays, including 5G, laying of submarine
cables, establishing new supply
chains and development of India's
North Eastern Region.
On May 5 in London, Motegi told
Jaishankar that Tokyo is ready to provide
grant assistance of up to 50 million
US dollars to India, based on the
latter's needs, in addition to the assistance
pledged earlier. Significantly,
Motegi prefaced his remarks by recalling
that the two countries shared special
bonds on account of the Indopacific
partnership.
Referring to the Covid-19's impact
on India, Motegi said that "towards
deepening the eJapan-India Special
Strategic and Global Partnership' and
realising a eFree and Open Indo-
Pacific,' he looks forward to continue
working with Minister Jaishankar."
On May 14, Japan announced the
Emergency Grant Aid of approximately
18.5 million US dollars to transport
the 300 ventilators announced on
April 30 through the United Nations
Office for Project Services (UNOPS),
as well as to provide additional 500
ventilators and 500 oxygen concentrators
to India through UNOPS as a part
of the assistance of up to 50 million
dollars announced on May 5.
The 500 ventilators were handed
over to India on May 30 and the 500
oxygen concentrators were handed
over to India on May 31.
On May 28, the government of
Japan announced the Emergency
Grant Aid of approximately 14.8 million
US dollars. Through this assistance,
1,000 ventilators and 2,000
oxygen concentrators will be provided
to India through UNOPS as a part of
the assistance of up to 50 million dollars
announced on May 5.
(This content is being carried under
an arrangement with
indianarrative.com)
London : A UK government
adviser has said that there was a
"significant chance" that the
date of June 21 for the final
step of lifting coronavirus
restrictions could change.
Professor Adam Finn from
the University of Bristol, also a
member of the Joint Committee
on Vaccination and
Immunisation (JCVI), said on
Monday that "things are much
more up in the air" than they
were earlier this month due to
the spread of the B.1.6172.
"In a way, I think, the dates
(of the roadmap) all the way
through were created just to
give everyone some kind of
sense of structure," Xinhua
news agency quoted Finn as
saying while speaking to Sky
News. "But they were always
qualified as being based on
what actually happened and
that they could change.
I think there's a significant
chance that it could change," he
said. "We're better off being
cautious at this point and being
able to progressively unlock
ourselves than to overdo it and
then end up having to lockdown
fully all over again."
His warning came as Britons
gathered on beaches, in parks
and beer gardens to enjoy the
bank holiday on Monday.
Cases of the B.1.6172 variant
have doubled in a week in
England to almost 7,000,
prompting concerns that the
government's lockdown
roadmap will be derailed.
The roadmap is expected to
see all legal limits on social
contact to be removed on June
21. It is understood that a final
decision on the planned easing
of lockdown will not be made
until June 14.

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NEWS
01-06-2021 to 15-06-2021
5
Casteism is deep-rooted in Kerala :
Malayalam anti-caste rapper Vedan
Vedan recently released the Malayalam rap song ‘Vaa’, which calls Dalits and other oppressed
communities to come together and stand united against systematic caste oppression.
Korah Abraham
Vaa, a recently released Malayalam
rap song, opens with the following
lines: Come friend, Shoulder to
shoulder, Let s go fight, Become fire,
Shatter the barricades (English translation).
Twenty-six-year-old Vedan
has made it clear in these opening
lines that his song is a call for some
form of united resistance. But resistance
against what?
There s a reason I released this
song on April 14, 2021, which is
Ambedkar Jayanti, birth anniversary
of Dr BR Ambedkar, Vedan says,
speaking to TNM over a telephonic
conversation from his hometown in
Thrissur, Kerala. This was Vedan s
way of sending a message that Vaa ,
which translates to Come , is a call
for Dalits and other oppressed communities
to come together and stand
united against systematic caste
oppression.
For years, rap music has been used
as an art form to voice out the injustices
happening in society especially
among the Black community in the US
and in Africa. Vedan s entry into rap
also stems from his experiences during
his growing up years and from the
stories he has heard from his paternal
grandmother. And therefore, his music
is personal and like they say, Personal
is political.
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Discrimination from childhood
The colony that I grew up in
Thrissur was surrounded by fields and
meadows that belonged to many private
individuals. We never knew or
cared about who owned these areas.
We used to go and play in these fields,
pluck mangoes and take a stroll with
our dogs, Vedan says. But one day,
the landowners warned them that people
from their colony were barred
from entering the fields. Back in the
day, I never understood why we
weren t allowed to enter their fields,
whereas certain other people could,
he recalls. It came to a point when the
Malayalam rapper decided that discussing
these issues and the discrimination
faced by the people of his community
within a small group of friends
was not enough. We felt that these
problems and ideas should be shared
with a wider audience and the best
way for that is through art in my
case, it was rap, he explains.
Ignorance about caste is dangerous
Vedan feels that there is a popular
misconception that there are few caste
issues in Kerala, and a major section
of society feels that just because they
do not believe in caste , caste discrimination
doesn t exist in the state.
This ignorance about caste is dangerous
as it removes all spaces for a Dalit
or a person from an oppressed caste to
Yogi, Ramdev now in varsity curriculum
Meerut (Uttar Pradesh) :
Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister
Yogi Adityanath and yoga guru
Ramdev will now be part of the
Chaudhary Charan Singh
University curriculum.
University officials said that
this is part of their effort to teach
students about their "ancient cultural
heritage" and the architects
of this heritage. Yogi
Adityanath’s ’Hathyoga Ka
Swaroop va Sadhna’ and
Ramdev’s ’Yog Sadhna va Yog
Chikitsa Rahasya’ will be part of the first
year, second semester undergraduate philosophy
curriculum.
It can also be taken as an elective subject
by students, along with other courses.
Prof Y. Vimla, pro vice chancellor of the
university, said, "The Board of Studies on
philosophy has decided that the works of
Yogi Adityanath and Ramdev would be
included in the syllabus. The two books
have been recommended by the state government
and endorsed by the Board of
Studies of the university."
The recommendation from the state
government was made to the University
Grants Commission (UGC).
"Study and practice of this course will
provide a stressless and effortless life,
expansion of consciousness, regulation of
the nervous system, etc," said the syllabus
structure for the philosophy course recommended
by the state government to the university.
Under the New Education
Policy, the UGC has come up
with a new curriculum which
allows universities to decide
what makes up 30 per cent of the
syllabus for each course. This 30
per cent is designed to keep
regional relevance in mind.
The two books have been chosen
from a list of seven suggested
readings, the others being
’Gheranda Samhita’, ’Patanjali
Yoga Sutra’, a book by Swami
Satyanand Saraswati and two by
Paramhansa Yogananda.
Prof Vimla said, "The concept of the
New Education Policy is that students must
first be apprised of their ancient cultural
heritage and taught about the architects of
this heritage. For instance, when it comes
to botany, we need to teach students about
the ancient sages who developed Ayurveda
and the contributors to its evolutionary
process."
speak out. We hope to change this
through our music, he adds.
But the journey as a rap artist hasn t
been easy for Vedan. In a state like
Kerala, you are scorned for speaking
about Dalit politics or Ambedkar politics.
When we bring up caste politics, it
unsettles the supporters of certain mainstream
political parties that have dominated
the political narrative in Kerala
for so long, states Vedan, who goes on
to add that he has faced various forms
of abuse through social media and over
phone calls ever since the release of his
first song Voice of voiceless .
The artist admits that his close
friends had suggested that he come up
with a non-political rap music next, in
order to avoid the threats and abuses.
But that s not why I m here, Vedan
asserts. I feel that there is a sense of
life in my music only when I m political.
When asked whether he has
thought of expanding his work to larger
audiences by way of live shows and
participation in public platforms like
his counterparts in Tamil Nadu The
Casteless Collective and Arivu, Vedan
believes that the two states differ when
it comes to their approach to Dalit politics.
Unlike in Kerala, Dalit politics
is more openly discussed in Tamil
Nadu. There are Ambedkar statues in
every nook and corner of the state. But
things are slowly changing in Kerala
and I m hopeful of going mainstream
soon enough, he says.
Vaa, which is directed and edited by
Vedan s friend Hrithwik Sasikumar,
was a crowdfunded project, which
according to Vedan is the result of the
efforts of many of his friends and family.
Apart from his two rap songs,
Vedan has also lent his voice for a
song in the recently released
Malayalam movie Nayattu, directed
by Martin Prakkat.
He tells TNM that currently he is
going through a creative block but
that he hopes to be a part of the mainstream
commercial film industry
someday. Mainstream commercial art
is important as far as I m concerned
because that s where my target audience
lies majority of whom are
unaware of caste oppression. In order
to get my message out to the masses, I
have to go mainstream and I will make
it happen. Courtesy : TNM
Ram Jethmalani’s son
Mahesh Jethmalani
nominated to Rajya Sabha
New Delhi : Former Law
Minister Ram Jethmalani’s son
Mahesh Jethmalani has been
nominated for the Rajya Sabha
seat vacated following the
death of MP Raghunath
Mohapatra last month. The
tenure of Mahesh Jethmalani -
- one of the leading lawyers of
the country, as Rajya Sabha
MP would be till May 2024.
Mahesh Jethmalani was associated
with the Bharatiya
Janata Party (BJP) in the past.
He has also been a member of
the National Executive of the BJP.
In 2012, Mahesh resigned from the BJP’s National Executive,
protesting against the then national BJP President Nitin Gadkari.
Last year, there were talks of Mahesh going to Rajya Sabha from
the nominated quota, although retired Supreme Court Chief
Justice Ranjan Gogoi was nominated then.

6 01-06-2021 to 15-06-2021 ASIA
www.theasianindependent.co.uk
Indian administrators must change
mind-set towards women's cricket
New Delhi : In 2012, the Indian
Sports Ministry asked all the national
sports federations (NSFs) to make provision
for "at least 10 per cent of its total
membership" to women, besides the 25
per cent membership and voting rights it
envisaged for the government-nominated
athletes on the executive committees
of the NSFs.
But the Board of Control for Cricket
in India (BCCI) would have none of it -
- it can only afford to snub the sports
ministry, like it did.
In a 39-page, strongly-worded reply
to the Ministry, the BCCI straightaway
rejected the instructions.
"Cricket for women is no doubt conducted
under the aegis of the BCCI, but
(it) has never attracted even a fraction of
the popularity associated with the men's
team," it wrote.
"Our members would never accept
such an illegal imposition of women
having membership and voting rights
over cricketing matters concerning the
men's team. In fact, this provision is
downright absurd as far as the BCCI is
concerned. The end result of these
changes would dilute the voting rights
of the existing members by 35 per cent
(25+10 per cent) and that is reason
enough to drop these provisions," the
Board added.
Needless to say, the BCCI never
implemented the Ministry's instructions
-- and got away scot-free.
Here's another example. Just a few
years ago, when I asked a former president
of the Indian cricket board during a
formal interview about the lack of facilities
for Indian women cricketers, he
chose to go "off the record" and poured
out, what I felt, were his true feelings
for women cricketers.
What he told me "off the record" was
candid as well as disconcerting. More
importantly, his "off the record" reply
gave a peep into the mind-set of Indian
cricket administrators vis-a-vis women
cricketers. "See, the Indian (male) players
are getting the facilities after several
decades; the women's wing wanted this
within two years," he stated, off the
record. "They want to be treated on the
same lines as (Mahendra Singh) Dhoni
and (Sachin) Tendulkar. Within bounds
and reasons, they have been given all --
they have been holding camps, using the
NCA (National Cricket Academy). They
want to tour; they are allowed. We cannot
duplicate the men's wing for them.
The men's wing got it after many years
after delivering so much on the field.
Please understand that," he said.
The reply came as a revelation of the
mentality of the BCCI -- of what they
think about women cricketers.
As a disclaimer, let me point out that
this is not to belittle the superb achievements
of the men's team over the years
and decades, nor am I trying to make a
case that women cricketers should
immediately - and at all costs -- be
given all that their male counterparts are
receiving. The point here is that the
BCCI is rich enough to narrow the vast
gap between the wages of the two genders
-- provided the thinking of its
administrators changes, if it hasn't so
far, since the former president gave me
a peep into his mind.
The BCCI's 2018-19 balance sheet
showed that it was worth a colossal Rs
14,489.80 crore. Obviously, there is no
dearth of money; it has to be the mindset,
which must change.
As the Indian women's team is set to
embark on a tour of England in a few
days, not much may have changed within
the BCCI with regard to women
cricketers. A sample of this can be had
from the vast disparity in the annual
retainership for male and female players
announced recently.
The annual retainership/contract for
players is just the latest example of the
huge gulf between the pay scale of the
male and female cricketers. A male
cricketer in the A+ Grade receives Rs 7
crore, those in the A bracket get Rs 5
crore, cricketers in the B category
receive Rs 3 crore, and cricketers in the
C Grade get Rs 1 crore annually.
For women, there are only three
grades, and the retainership amounts are
Rs 50 lakh, Rs 30 lakh, and Rs 10 lakh.
Yes, you read it right - Rs 50 lakh, Rs 30
lakh, and Rs 10 lakh.
The total amount the BCCI has earmarked
for the 28 male cricketers for
the 2020-21 annual retainership is Rs 96
crore, while the corresponding grand
total for the 19 contracted women cricketers
is a mere Rs 5.10 crore -- a colossal
difference of Rs 90.90 crore.
Similarly, there is a huge gulf in the
match fees of Indian male and female
cricketers.
Also, the women's teams play much
less international matches than the
men's team - therefore, much less
income in terms of match fee. Imagine,
the Indian women's team last played a
Test match in 2014. They will now play
one in England.
Those who try to defend the vast disparity
in payment often argue that
women players don't attract revenue via
sponsorship and other endorsements, so
they deserve less pay. My counter is:
Did the BCCI over the years and
decades try to take women players (and
administrators of the national women's
cricket body when they were a separate
entity until 2006) into confidence and
market their game along with men's?
Did they treat female cricketers at par
with their male counterparts in many
other respects? The answer is: No.
Had the BCCI administrators over
the decades honestly planned about the
betterment of the women's game, they
could have bundled the sponsorship
deals, combining men's and women's
cricket. That never happened.
The hard truth is that the BCCI
extremely reluctantly merged the
national women's body, which was an
independent body until 2006. The BCCI
was one of the last national men's
boards to merge the women's wing on
the instructions of the International
Cricket Council.
And then people with a certain mindset
have been ruling the BCCI since.
Evidently, there are different yardsticks
for men's and women's game.
Indian women cricketers, present and
past, saw a ray of hope when Sourav
Ganguly was elected BCCI president in
October 2019. Former India captain
Shanta Ramgaswamy was among those
who saw light at the end of the tunnel.
"As Sourav is there as BCCI president
and when he says that he wants to
do something for first-class cricketers, I
suppose he includes women players
also. So, that's a good sign. Hopefully,
half of our work will be done. What we
need to do, he himself is proposing. If it
happens, it will be a shot in the arm for
all women cricketers who slogged all
their lives to help sustain this game,"
Ramgaswamy, who is now in the BCCI
apex council as a representative of the
Indian Cricketers' Association, had told
me after the 2019 BCCI elections.
Alas, not much has happened since
October 2019. Probably Ganguly alone
can't do anything without his colleagues
changing their mind-set vis-a-vis Indian
women's cricket.
Mumbai : Actor Abhishek
Bachchan has called his father,
Bollywood icon Amitabh
Bachchan, good company to
have, sharing that when the
father-son duo was hospitalised
due to Covid last year, it was
wonderful to wake up and go see
his father, a 78-year-old back
then with severe comorbidities,
have the fighting spirit to battle
the virus.
"Everybody has their own
unique experience with Covid, I
think people react to it differently.
It was not a nice experience
for me because you know I had
a family that was inflicted by
this as well. If you are in a situation
where you are under medical
supervision, you are very
powerless," said Abhishek, during
a social media live motivational
podcast with international
speaker Anand Chulani.
"Your life is being run by the
medical teams so you are not
really in control of your faculties
Abhishek on dad Amitabh Bachchan:
He is good company to have
in that sense and you don't really
have any power over what
you do. You are not too sure
what is going on as there is a lot
of uncertainty about how things
are going to pan out. The initial
nights when I was in hospital, it
was tough to sleep because I
didn't know really what awaited
me on the other side," Abhishek
added.
He stressed that keeping a
positive mindset is the only
thing that is in one's control and
it could get challenging at times.
He said his father got him
though his sleepless nights in
the: "Initially, my father and I
were in the hospital together. A
week later my wife and daughter
were hospitalised.
Thankfully, they
only had to be there
for about a week
then they came out,
and my dad and I
stayed on for a bit
longer because we
hadn't tested negative."
"Well, he is good
company to have,
so it was wonderful
to wake up and go
see my father who
last year was 78
years old, a man
with severe comorbidities
but him
being positive and
having that fighting
spirit to get through
this."
Abhishek added: "At
that point of time my
energies were obviously
directed towards him
and him becoming better
because you fear for
your parents, it's actually
of a sensitive age
group."
Seeing Big B's fighting
spirit was inspirational
to Abhishek. "I
mean he is also a great
friend of mine, so it was
good to shoot the
breeze with him and
you know when you are
a COVID patient although you
can interact with other patients,
there is nothing else to do, you
just have to wait around. So,
there was some good banter that
went on, I mean he is a good
roomy in that sense," he said.
Reflecting on how Covid has
shaped his life, he said he is the
same person and he would like
to believe that even in times like
these he always stays positive.
"The one thing that the last
one year has taught me is you
got to value your relationship
and value the fact that you have
a happy and healthy family
around you. There was a point in
time I was frustrated during the
lockdown but then my wife put
things into perspective for me
and told me how for the first
time in many years I could sit
back, not be working round the
clock and enjoy the company of
my family in the safety of my
home. That by itself, is a blessing,"
he added.

www.theasianindependent.co.uk
ASIA
01-06-2021 to 15-06-2021
7
Emirates further extends
suspension of passenger
flights from India
Dubai : UAE flag carrier Emirates has announced the further
extension of its passenger flights from India until June 30 in the
wake of the Covid-19 pandemic situation in the South Asian country.
The Dubai-based airline had announced the suspension first on
April 24 as a devastating second wave of the pandemic hit India,
leading to record high number of daily cases and deaths.
Last week, it had extended the suspension till at least June 14.
In a statement issued on Sunday, the airline added:
"Furthermore, passengers who have transited through India in the
last 14 days will not be accepted to travel from any other point to
the UAE. "UAE Nationals, holders of UAE Golden Visas and
members of diplomatic missions who comply with the revised
published Covid-19 protocols will be exempt for travel."
The suspension of incoming passenger traffic from India to the
UAE began on April 24.
The ban has now been extended until June 14.
Andhra CM lays foundations for
14 medical colleges
Amaravati : Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Y.S. Jagan Mohan
Reddy on Monday virtually laid the foundation stones for the construction
of 14 medical colleges
in the state.
With the addition of the
new colleges coming up at
Piduguralla, Machilipatnam,
Vijayanagaram, Anakapalle,
Rajahmundry, Amalapuram,
Palakollu, Eluru, Bapatla,
Markapuram, Madanapalle,
Penukonda, Nandyala and
Adoni, the state will have 16
new medical colleges in all.
Speaking on the occasion, the Chief Minister said that the state
government is committed towards developing healthcare facilities
and making them available to all sections of people by setting up
a medical college with a super-speciality hospital in every parliamentary
constituency and nursing colleges affiliated to the medical
colleges. The construction work for the new medical colleges
is expected to be completed within three years at an estimated cost
of Rs 8,000 crore, while the construction of two medical colleges,
in Pulivendula and Paderu, is already underway.
"There is a need to open 16 new medical colleges in the state
for improving tertiary care, as currently only 11 medical colleges
are functioning," Reddy said.
The Chief Minister said that the government is also setting up
500-bed hospitals along with the medical colleges, with modern
infrastructure and state-of-the-art facilities.
Rice, wheat bran distributed in TN to feed stray dogs, cows
Chennai : The Tamil Nadu
State Animal Welfare Board, under
the state Animal Husbandry
Department, is helping to feed
stray animals including dogs and
cows in the streets this year, like it
had during the lockdown in the
first wave of the pandemic last
year.
Animal Husbandry Department
officials said that they have
received 1,250 kg of rice from the
Tamil Nadu Rice Mill Owners
Association, while state government
milk undertaking Aavin has
also donated milk powder worth
Rs 1 lakh, and will deliver this
materials to recognised organisations
working in the area of animal
welfare, as well as some individuals
who are at the forefront of feeding
stray animals.
The department has already sent
a circular to all the District
Collectors to coordinate with these
animal welfare organisations and
individuals who used to feed strays
in their respective jurisdictions.
Activist Selvaraj Manikantan,
who feeds stray dogs at Madurai,
told IANS that he has already been
contacted by the district administration
which has conveyed that
the Animal Husbandry Department
will be providing rice and
skimmed milk powder to feed
'Taiwan's worst Covid outbreak
may be coming under control'
Taipei : Taiwan's worst Covid-19 outbreak
seems to be easing thanks to the
efforts of medical workers, local governments
and ordinary citizens, Central
Epidemic Control Command (CECC) chief
Chen Shih-chung said on Monday.
With a population of 23.6 million,
Taiwan has recorded a total of 8,551 coronavirus
infections and 124 fatalities, most
of which were recorded in the current outbreak
which began earlier this month,
including 274 new cases and 15 deaths
confirmed on Monday, reports dpa news
agency.
CECC data showed that the confirmed
case numbers have declined from a peak of
533 tallied on May 17 to 274 announced on
Monday. "In the past few days we can see
that the number of cases is declining which
is the result of everyone's efforts," Chen
told reporters at the daily CECC press
briefing.
Chen said the critical effective reproduction
value, which shows the number of
persons that can be infected by an individual,
peaked at 15 during May 13-15, but
has now declined to 1.02.
He said that that the results show that
"the epidemic situation is progressing to a
Chennai : Covid-19 is
scripting untold miseries taking
away lives of near and dear
ones besides crippling the
financial position as people
turn jobless but the most vulnerable
of the tragic lot are the
children as in any other crisis as
well.
In Coimbatore alone, 91
children have lost their parents
-- either one or both due to
Covid -19.
The Office of the District
Child Protection Council
(DCPO) in Coimbatore on
Sunday said that 91 children
under 18 years of age have lost
either one or both parents due
to the Covid-19 pandemic.
Of the 91 children who lost
their parents, family members
of 53 of these children have
strays.
"Already, I am feeding some
dogs in the neighbourhood and this
would be of great help as I was
running from pillar to post to get
the materials," he said.
Other than stray dogs and cattle,
25 gunny bags of wheat bran was
being distributed to feed the horses
which are used for joy rides in
Marina beach.
Wilson Peter, a horse owner at
Marina beach, told IANS: "Yes,
we have received the wheat bran
and it is of immense help as we
were not able to get the necessary
wheat to feed the horses owing to
lockdown."
controllable scope."
Chen also defended the CECC's decision
to sign advance procurement contracts
with two Taiwan pharmaceutical companies,
Medigen Vaccine Company and
United Biomedical Inc, for 10 million of
doses of Covid-19 vaccine each as in line
with international practice.
Meanwhile, Taiwan's parliament authorised
over $15 billion for Covid-19 related
economic and social assistance funds on
Monday for people and companies affected
by the current outbreak in which over
sought financial assistance
from the government.
Chief Minister M.K. Stalin
on Saturday announced that the
state government would
deposit Rs 5 lakh in the name
of each child who has been
orphaned by Covid-19 and Rs 3
lakh in the name of each one
8,500 have been infected and 124 have
died.
The revisions extend the tenure of the
special act until June 2022 and hike the
ceiling for assistance measures by $15.2
billion-$30.4 billion.
Officials said the number of people who
will benefit will exceed the 5.24 million
who received cash payments last year.
The Cabinet is expected to finalise the
new special budget on Thursday, allowing
cash payments to be sent into bank
accounts by Friday.
91 orphans, half-orphans of
Coimbatore: A Covid tragedy
half-orphaned.
Children
who have lost
their parents
due to Covid-
19 and who are
staying with
their relatives
will be paid Rs
3,000 per
month till they
turn 18 years.
An officer
with the DCPO
told IANS: "We have identified
91 such children who have lost
one of their parents or both the
parents to Covid-19. Single
parent, relatives, and guardians
of these children do not want
them to be sent to government
homes. "We have received
requests from 51 family members
of children who lost one of
the parents and 2 applications
from relatives of children who
lost both their parents for assistance
from the government."
The Confederation of Indian
Industries, Coimbatore chapter,
in association with the DCPO
has arranged groceries and
other necessary items for the
next three to four months for
the families of children who
lost one of the parents or both.
K. Manikantan, an office
bearer of CII, Coimbatore
chapter, told IANS: "We are
supporting the families of these
children but the government
announcement will help alleviate
their difficulties and the relatives
who look after these children
will not also be burdened."

8 01-06-2021 to 15-06-2021 NEWS
www.theasianindependent.co.uk
Punjab Mail, India's oldest train
that served Britishers, turns 110
Mumbai : The oldest running longdistance
train of the Indian Railways,
Punjab Mail, connecting Mumbai-
Firozpur - originally linking Bombay
with Peshawar (now in Pakistan) -
turns 110 on Tuesday, Central Railway
officials said here on Monday.
The Punjab Limited as she was
called then, is a little over 16 years
older than its more glamorous counterpart
Frontier Mail, though its origins
are rather vague.
She steamed out of Bombay's
Ballard Pier Mole station - which was
the hub of the erstwhile Great Indian
Peninsular Railways (GIPR), that later
became the CR.
Based on a Cost Estimate paper of
1911 and a complaint by an irate passenger
in Oct. 2012 about "the later
arrival of the train by a few minutes at
Delhi" station, the CR concluded that
the Punjab Mail made her maiden run
on June 1, 1912.
To begin with, there were the P&O
steamers bringing in the mail, and
excited officers of the British Raj
along with their spouses, coming to
their first postings in colonial India
after a 13-day long sea voyage from
Southampton to Mumbai Port.
Since the British officials held a
combined ticket both for the sea voyage
to Bombay and then onward
inland journey by train to their place
of postings, after disembarking they
would simply board one of the trains
from here bound for Delhi, Calcutta or
Madras. The Punjab Limited used to
run on fixed mail days from Bombay
to Peshawar covering 2,496 kms in
around 47 hours along the Great
Indian Peninsular route, via Itarsi,
Agra, Delhi and Lahore.
At that time, it had only 3 passenger
cars with a total capacity of 96 travellers,
three for postal goods and mail,
and was the fastest running train in the
British India. The passenger coaches
were all corridor cars in first class, dual
berth compartments, and well appointed
with lavatories, bathrooms, a restaurant
car, a compartment for the luggage
and servants of the British officers.
Later, from 1914, the Punjab Limited
started originating and terminating at
the Bombay VT Station, now
Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Terminus
Mumbai and a UNESCO World
Heritage site. Today, the journey time
of Punjab Mail, hauled by electric
engines, has come down significantly,
covering the 1,930 kms between
Mumbai CSMT-Firozpur Cantt in 34
hrs 15 mins. Compared to the original 6
cars of the Punjab Limited, Punjab Mail
now has 9 air-conditioned coaches, 6
sleeper coaches, 5 general second class
coaches, a pantry and a generator van.
By mid-1930s, it also started catering
to the Indians on the move in Third
class cars, it got the first airconditioned
coach in 1945 , from May 1976,
it was hauled by diesel engines, and by
1980s with electric engines as a large
part of the trunk routes on the IR network
got electrified.
From December 2020, the Punjab
Mail started its journey with the
German-designed Alstom LHB
GmbH's Linke Hofmann Busch
(LHB) coaches which give more safety
and a pleasant travel experience to
the passengers.
Travel industry disappointed with GST Council
failure to rationalise taxes for the sector
New Delhi : The travel Industry, one
of worst affected sectors during the pandemic,
is disappointed as the government
has so far not come up with a specific
economic relief package for it.
IATO, one of the apex body tour operators,
has expressed deep disappointed
over its request for rationalising GST
and cascading impact it causes on the
tourism industry not even being discussed
in the GST Council meeting held
last week.
Though there is no substitute for
resumption of tourism activity which
seems far off given the second wave of
the pandemic, the apex tourism national
body has now pinned its hopes that the
government and GST council would
sympathise and do its bit and provide
succour by lowering the stiff GST which
is imposed on the tourism industry.
According to Rajiv Mehra, President
IATO, "Tourism, more particularly the
inbound one, is the worst affected with
zero inbound tourism business in the last
14 months and further we see no hope of
inbound tourism to start soon. In a scenario
like this we were hopeful that our
request would be favourably considered
in the GST council meeting, but what
was disappointing was that it was not
even discussed."
It is more important to reduce taxes
on the tourism industry as Indian tourism
stakeholders are going to face very tough
competition from our neighbouring
countries as they will be coming out with
lucrative offers to attract international
tourists to their countries, IATO said.
Until and unless we reduce taxes on
the tourism products, we will not be able
to compete with South Asian and other
neighbouring countries as tax on tourism
in these countries is very low compared
to our country, Mehra said.
However, IATO is still hopeful that
some relief will be favourably considered
in the second stimulus package to
be announced by the Ministry of Finance
considering the crisis this industry is facing.

www.theasianindependent.co.uk ASIA 01-06-2021 to 15-06-2021 9
Petrol price rises again after hitting
century mark in MUMBAI
New Delhi : After a day's
pause, fuel prices increased
once again on Monday reaching
new highs across the country
with petrol crossing Rs 100 per
litre mark in several cities.
Accordingly, the pump prices
of petrol and diesel increased by
29 paise and 26 paise per litre to
Rs 94.23 and Rs 85.16 per litre
respectively in Delhi on
Monday.
In the city of Mumbai, where
petrol prices crossed Rs 100
mark for the first time ever on
Furore over Waseem
Rizvi's 'New Quran'
Lucknow : Waseem Rizvi, the former
chairman of Shia Central Waqf Board in
Uttar Pradesh, has kicked up a major controversy.
He claims to have created a 'new
Quran' by removing 26 verses that allegedly
promote violence and arranged the remaining
verses in proper sequence.
Rizvi has also appealed to Prime Minister
Narendra Modi to authorize the use of his
'new Quran' in all madrasas and Muslim
institutes in the country.
"I appeal to Prime Minister Narendra
Saturday, the fuel price rose
again by 28 paise per litre on
Monday to reach new high of Rs
100.47 per litre. Diesel price
also increased in the city by 28
paise per litre to reach Rs 92.45
a litre, the highest among metros.
Across the country as well,
petrol and diesel prices
increased on Monday but the
quantum varied depending on
the level of local taxes in different
states.
Mumbai is not the only city
to have unique distinction of
petrol breaching the Rs 100 pet
litre mark. Thane reached the
mark few days back while few
other cities in Rajasthan (including
Jaipur) Madhya Pradesh and
Maharashtra, having the highest
VAT levels on auto fuels in the
country, have already been selling
normal petrol for over Rs
100 a litre for past several days.
Premium petrol prices have
already crossed the Rs 100 per
litre mark in Mumbai and other
parts of the country through
Modi to include this new Quran in the education
curriculum of various madrasas and
Muslim education institutes across the country.
This redacted version of the Quran is the
right Quran and it will soon be available in
the market for people to buy," Rizvi said.
Earlier this year, Waseem Rizvi had filed
a PIL in the Supreme Court to remove 26
verses of the Quran saying that they promote
terrorism and jihad.
In his PIL, Rizvi had stated that these
verses are allegedly used by Islamist
increase in the retail rates in the
month of January and February.
With Monday's price rise,
fuel prices have now increased
on 16 days and remained
unchanged on 15 days in the
month of May. The 15 increases
in May has taken up petrol
prices by Rs 3.83 per litre in
Delhi. Similarly, diesel price has
increased by Rs 4.43 per litre in
the national capital.
Under daily price revision,
OMCs revise petrol and diesel
prices every morning benchmarking
retail fuel prices to a
15-day rolling average of global
refined products' prices and dollar
exchange rate. However, in a
market where fuel prices need to
be increased successively, oil
companies this month have been
holding back price rise on few
days before starting the process
all over again.
IANS had written earlier that
OMCs may begin increasing the
retail price of petrol and diesel
post state elections as they were
incurring losses to the tune of
Rs 2-3 per litre by holding the
price line despite higher global
crude and product prices.
With global crude prices rising
again to around $70 a barrel
mark, OMCs may have to keep
revising prices upwards for
some more time.
Terrorist Groups as justification for attacks
on non-believers and civilians.
However, the court termed the petition to
be "absolutely frivolous" and imposed a fine
of Rs 50,000 on Waseem Rizvi for filing the
PIL.
According to his PIL, he said that Islam is
based on the concept of equality, forgiveness,
equity and tolerance. However, people
have been drifting away from these basics.
He added, due to the extreme interpretations
of the 26 verses of the Holy book, Islam
is getting identified with militancy, fundamentalism,
extremism and terrorism.
Shortly after filing the PIL, several FIRs
were filed against Rizvi who also claimed to
have received death threats.
Both Shia and Sunni communities, have
alleged that Waseem Rizvi had been 'deliberately'
trying to drive a wedge between the
two communities.
Shia cleric Maulana Kalbe Jawwad said
that Rizvi was 'an enemy of Islam' and had
nothing to do with the Quran.
Maulana Yasoob Abbas said that the All-
India Shia Personal Law Board has strongly
condemned Rizvi's move.
"Claiming to even edit or rewrite the Holy
Quran is nothing short of blasphemy. It is an
attempt to divide the nation. Muslim can
never accept any change in the Holy Quran,"
he said.
S Korea to rev up space
development after
lifting of US restrictions
Seoul : South Korea's science minister said on Monday that the
country will expand investment and focus on the development of
its space programme after the United States lifted all restrictions on
the country's missiles. During a bilateral summit on May 21, South
Korea and the U.S. agreed to scrap the restrictions on South
Korean missiles, which was first put in place in 1979 and had limited
Seoul's development of even non-military space projectiles.
The guidelines, which have undergone revisions over the years,
had restricted Seoul's development of solid-fuel space rockets until
last year, reports Yonhap news agency. The latest decision to terminate
the guidelines ensures complete autonomy for South
Korea's space launch vehicle developments, the Ministry of
Science and ICT said in a statement.
As follow-up measures to the recent summit, South Korea has
also signed the Artemis Accords, a U.S.-led international agreement
for lunar exploration, as well as an agreement with the United
States for cooperation on civil global navigation satellite systems.
"The South Korea-U.S. summit and subsequent measures have presented
South Korea an opportunity to become a leading country in
the space industry," said Science Minister Lim Hye-sook during a
meeting with space industry companies and institutes. "Through
the Artemis Accords, we will also expand investment into space
exploration," Lim said.
South Korea, a relative latecomer to the global space development
race, is preparing to launch its first homegrown three-stage
space rocket, named Nuri, in October this year. The Nuri uses four
75-ton liquid engines in its first stage, a 75-tonne liquid engine in
the second stage and a 7-ton liquid engine in the third stage.
The country also plans to launch its first lunar orbiter next year
to conduct an observation mission of the moon throughout 2023.
Saint-Gobain to
provide 2 O2 generators
for TN hospitals
Chennai : The glass business division of Saint-Gobain India
said on Monday that it will provide two oxygen generation plants
to two hospitals in Tamil Nadu.
The company also said it is pledging Rs 4.5 crore to fight the
Covid-19 pandemic in Tamil Nadu.
According to Saint-Gobain, it has brought one oxygen generation
plant from France for the Government Medical College
Hospita in Omandurar, Chennai, besides locally sourcing one for
the IRT Hospital at Perundurai in Erode district.
These plants will be commissioned and operational in June.
The company further committed Rs 1.25 crore for providing
oxygen concentrators, flow meters, medical kits, personal protective
equipment (PPE) like masks, gloves, sanitisers, and other protective
gear for frontline healthcare workers, public healthcare centers,
and government hospitals in Kancheepuram, Tiruvallur and
Erode districts, besides Chennai.

10 01-06-2021 to 15-06-2021 ASIA
www.theasianindependent.co.uk
Gun sales in US continue amid
pandemic, protests: Report
Beijing enacts anti-food
waste regulation
Beijing : Catering service providers in Beijing who encourage,
mislead or force consumers to order too much food may face fines
of up to 10,000 yuan ($1,570), a media report said Monday, citing
a regulation passed by the
municipal legislature.
The regulation, aimed at
preventing food waste and
promoting a simple, green
and low-carbon life-style,
came into effect after being
adopted at a session of the
municipal legislature last
week, Xinhua news agency
quoted the China Daily
report as saying.
According to the new regulation, catering service providers
should not set a minimum consumption amount and should clearly
state service items and their charging standards.
It said food delivery platforms should remind consumers to order
the proper amount of food. Catering service providers that provide
food through online platforms should indicate necessary information
on webpages to promote smaller meals or set meal options.
Those who violate the regulation and refuse to rectify their
behaviour will face fines ranging from 1,000 to 10,000 yuan.
Chinese lawmakers in April voted to adopt an anti-food waste
law. The law, designed to help establish a long-term mechanism to
prevent food waste, is vital to ensure national food security.
Washington : Gun sales in the US have
continued amid the Covid-19 pandemic and
the nationwide protests, and about a fifth of
all Americans who bought arms last year
were first-time owners, a media report said.
The New York Times report on Sunday
quoted research data from Northeastern
University and the Harvard Injury Control
Research Center as saying that 39 per cent of
American households own guns, and of the
new owners, half were women, a fifth were
Black and a fifth were Hispanic, reports
Xinhua news agency. The ratio of households
owning guns is up from 32 per cent in
2016, The New York Times said, quoting the
General Social Survey, a public opinion poll
conducted by a research center at the
University of Chicago.
"While gun sales have been climbing for
decades, they often spike in election years
and after high-profile crimes, Americans
have been on an unusual, prolonged buying
spree fuelled by the coronavirus pandemic,
the protests last summer and the fears they
both stoked," said the report.
In March last year, the report added, federal
background checks, a rough proxy for
purchases, topped one million in a week for
the first time since the government began
tracking them in 1998.
And the buying continued, through the
protests in the summer and the election in the
fall, until a week this spring broke the record
with 1.2 million background checks, it said.
"There was a surge in purchasing unlike
anything we've ever seen," Garen J.
Wintemute, a gun researcher at the
University of California, Davis, was quoted
as saying.
"Usually it slows down. But this just kept
going." With the pandemic accelerating the
trend of rising gun sales, the pace has continued
this year.
Americans bought more than 2.3 million
guns in January, the highest since last July,
and overall in the first quarter, sales jumped
18 per cent, compared to the first quarter of
2020, said The Trace, a news outlet that
tracks gun sales.
Meanwhile, shooting incidents with four
or more fatalities in the US in 2021 have
reached 17, compared to the whole year
number of 23 in 2020, and 36 in 2019,
according to Gun Violence Archive (GVA), a
nonprofit research group.
Broadening the scope to include gun violence
injuries, the GVA counted 610 incidents
in which at least four people were shot
last year, compared with 417 in 2019 and
336 in 2018.
Under the GVA definition, there have
been 231 mass casualty shootings in the US
so far in 2021, more than one per day.
'Once-in-a-100-year' rain,
floods continue in NZ
Wellington : Heavy rain and floods
that forecasters said could be a "once-in-a-
100-year" event continued to lash New
Zealand's South Island on Monday.
The heavy rain caused severe floods,
evacuations of more than 240 homes,
power cuts and rising rivers, reports
Xinhua news agency.
Several bridges were also broken amid
the floods. In some eastern areas of
Christchurch, the biggest city in the
Canterbury region, rivers ran high after
consecutive rains. Some schools had to
be closed on Monday due to high flooding
risks in surrounding areas. More
than 1,000 homes were without power
across Christchurch on Sunday night,
with freezing weather accompanying
the heavy rains.
About 100 of these households still
suffered power outage on Monday.
Local authorities declared a state of
local emergency for the whole
Canterbury region of the South Island.
People have been advised to stay at
home to avoid road closure and flooding
risks. According to MetService, New
Zealand's national weather authority, the
red alert was lifted for the Canterbury
region as the rainfall started to ease on
Monday.
Red level warnings in the country are
"issued for the most extreme weather systems
which may cause widespread disruption
and severe impacts", according to
MetService.
Myanmar military extends
non-operation period
Nay Pyi Taw : The Myanmar military announced the extension of
its non-operation period against ethnic armed groups to the end of
June. All military operations will be suspended across the country
except for the period when security and administrative machinery of
the government in addition to state defence and administrative measures
are encroached on, the military said in a statement on Sunday.
According to the statement, the extension is meant to facilitate
talks with the Nationwide Ceasefire Agreement (NCA) signatory ethnic
armed organisations to strengthen the peace process; efforts to get
non-NCA signatory ethnic armed groups to sign the agreement; and
discussions on necessary measures for lasting peace in the country,
Xinhua news agency reported.
The extension also aims to let students in the country be able to
focus on study peacefully as all schools for basic education will be
reopened on June 1, according to the statement.
So far, 10 ethnic armed groups have signed the NCA with the government
since it was initiated in October 2015.
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www.theasianindependent.co.uk
ASIA
01-06-2021 to 15-06-2021
11
Big jolt for Pakistan in
Reko Diq mines case
Under Obama-Biden,
US spied on top
GERMAN LEADERS
New Delhi/Copenhagen, May 31 (IANS) Under President
Barack Obama and then Vice President Joe Biden's administration,
the US was spying on Germany's Chancellor Angela Merkel from
2012 to 2014, using Denmark's secret service.
The scandal was exposed by Danish media, triggering a political
storm. This is the second time since 2013, that the US has been
accused of spying on European politicians and officials, especially
Germany.
However, this time the Danish media has gained access to the
reports which provide insights into how the Defence Intelligence
Service (FE) of Denmark collaborated with the US National
Security Agency (NSA) to collect intelligence and information on
Germany, an ally of the US.
According to the Danish media reports, the spying operation
was targeted at Merkel, German President -- and then Foreign
Minister -- Frank-Walter Steinmeier and the then opposition leader
Peer Steinbruck. Code named as 'Operation Dunhammer', the US
NSA, with the help of Denmark's FE, tapped into Danish internet
cables to access phone conversations and text messages of several
prominent European politicians.
In a series of tweets, Edward Snowden, a former US computer
intelligence consultant who became a whistleblower on America's
global surveillance programmes using telecom companies, took a
dig at the Biden administration after the latest Danish media
reports appeared on Sunday.
"Biden is well-prepared to answer for this when he soon visits
Europe since, of course, he was deeply involved in this scandal the
first time around. There should be an explicit requirement for full
public disclosure not only from Denmark, but their senior partner
as well," he tweeted.
Snowden also alleged that in 2013, the Danish government
"secretly welcomed an FBI plane-intended to kidnap me. At the
time, it seemed strange that they would help hide another country's
crimes. It was not the Denmark I imagined".
The US and Denmark governments have not issued any statements
yet.
Islamabad : The strength of Pakistans
claim of success in the Reko Diq mines case
might just be fading out as the Tethyan
Copper Company (TCC) has challenged the
ruling of a British Virgin Islands (BVI) court,
which had allowed Pakistan to retain its
assets, which were attached in connection to
the case for the settlement of a $6 billion
award.
TCC has filed an appeal against the High
Court of Justice order in the BVI Court of
Appeal, as per the latest updates.
Earlier, TCC had sought attachment of
Pakistan's assets for the enforcement of the
$6 billion award that was given by the
International Centre for Settlement of
Investment Disputes (ICSID) on July 12,
2019. The award was slapped on Pakistan for
revoking a contract for mining at Reko Diq
in Pakistan's Balochistan province.
On December 10, 2020, the BVI High
Court had attached the Roosevelt Hotel in
New York and the Scribe Hotel in Paris to
enforce the award. Both the hotels were
owned by Pakistan's flag carrier airline
Pakistan International Airlines (PIA).
However, the same court later changed its
order and ruled that PIA could retain its two
assets, a news that was celebrated in Pakistan
as a victory in the case.
As per the BVI ruling, TCC's plea was not
only rejected, but a fine of $5 million along
with a $50,000 penalty was also imposed on
the company. "The BVI Court ruled that it
has no jurisdiction, and the all ex-parte
orders obtained by the TCC were based on
an incorrect reading of law," said a senior
member of Pakistan's Ministry of Law.
The rejection of the TCC plea also came
because Pakistan has already initiated the
process for the annulment of the $6 billion
award in the Reko Diq case, a decision on
which is awaited. On the other hand,
Pakistan's legal experts say that the probability
to have the $6 billion penalty annulled
has certainly come as a booster for the country,
which is already suffering from an economic
crisis. The international arbitration tribunal
of the ICSID had slapped a $6 billion
penalty on Pakistan on July 12, 2019, for a
decision taken in 2011 to deny a mining lease
for the Reko Diq project to the TCC.
Pakistan was ordered to pay over $4 billion
in damages and $1.7 billion in preaward
interest to TCC, after it was found that
Pakistan reportedly took an unlawful decision
to deny TCC a lease to mine copper and
gold deposits at the Reko Diq mine.
While Pakistan's leverage given by the
court and chances of annulment of the $6 billion
award will be a great booster for the
country's economy, TCC's latest appeal may
just ruin Islamabad's success claims and further
hurt its crippling and worsening economic
crisis.
China to support couples wanting a 3rd child
Beijing : China will support couples
that wish to have a third child, according
to a meeting of the Political Bureau of
Communist Party of China Central
Committee held on Monday.
Implementing the policy and its relevant
supporting measures will help
improve China's population structure,
actively respond to the aging population,
and preserve the country's human resource
advantages, Xinhua news agency reported
citing the Bureau as saying.
The decision came just three weeks
after the publication of the latest national
census which revealed rthat China's population
on the mainland reached 1.4 billion,
growing 0.53 per cent annually on average in
the past decade. Experts said that because of
the decades-old one-child policy, which was
only abolished in 2015, many Chinese have
become accustomed to having only one
child, dpa news agency reported.
In the past 10 years, China's population
has grown by only 0.53 per cent annually to
just over 1.4 billion people - the slowest
pace in decades.
The one-child policy that had been in
place since 1979 was abolished in 2015 and
replaced by a two-child policy.
However, the turnaround had only led to
a slight increase in births in 2016.
Since then, the number has fallen every
year.
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12 01-06-2021 to 15-06-2021 NEWS
www.theasianindependent.co.uk
World economy to grow
at 6% this year: OECD
16 Taliban militants
dead, 8 arrested in
AFGHANISTAN
Kabul : At least 16 Taliban militants were killed and eight
others arrested in two Afghan provinces, the country's Ministry
of Defence confirmed on Monday.
In Kunduz province, five people were freed from the
Taliban's clutches after Afghan National Army commandos raided
a hideout in Qosh Tapa village on the outskirts of provincial
capital Kunduz city on Sunday night, Xinhua news agency quoted
the Ministry as saying in a statement.
"The army commandos raided a Taliban hideout at midnight.
During the operation, the security forces received hostile fire.
They returned fire in self-defense.
"In ensuing gunfight, 12 enemy combatants were killed and
eight others arrested," the statement said.
The freed people and the arrested militants were shifted to an
army camp.
The Taliban hideout was destroyed and the weapons and
ammunition were seized during the raid, the statement added.
In Helmand province, four militants were killed and two
wounded after Afghan Air Force bombed a Taliban position in
Chah-e-Angir, an area in restive Nad Ali district, on Sunday.
The Taliban have intensified attacks on provincial capitals,
districts, bases and checkpoints after US President Joe Biden
announced that American troops will pull out from the country
by September 11, 2021 after almost 20 years.
NATO agreed to follow suit.
Almost 10,000 NATO soldiers from the Resolute Support
training mission, including 2,500 soldiers from the US and
around 1,100 from Germany, the two biggest contingents, are
due to leave the country.
The withdrawal formally began on May 1.
Paris : The global economy could grow
by "nearly 6 per cent" this year, the
Organization for Economic Co-operation
and Development (OECD) said on
Monday, while warning that recovery from
the Covid-19 pandemic-related losses will
be "very uneven". Growth will be driven
by the world's three main economic powers,
with China's gross domestic product
(GDP) set to expand by more than 8 per
cent, dpa news agency quoted the Parisbased
OECD as saying in its 2021
Economic Outlook.
The US should be close behind, registering
nearly 7 per cent GDP growth, with
the European Union clocking a higherthan-usual
4.25 per cent. But while this
year's projected rebound would amount to
"an impressive surge after the 3.5 per-cent
contraction in 2020" it is unlikely to return
living standards "to the level expected
before the pandemic" by the end of next
year, the OECD said. It also noted that pandemic-related
curbs have made it more difficult
to estimate GDP and "may have
reduced the comparability of economic
outcomes across countries". The OECD
Berlin : The German federal
police on Monday carried out
raids in several cities targeting
organised smuggling of
migrants.
Starting at 6 a.m., 33 properties
were simultaneously
searched in Berlin, Hamburg
and the states of North Rhine
Westphalia, Saxony-Anhalt and
Saxony as well as in the
Slovakian capital Bratislava,
dpa news agency quoted
spokesperson for the Criminal
Investigation Department here
as saying.
Around 700 officers were
deployed, with the main focus
of the operation in Berlin.
One of the two main suspects,
a Vietnamese national,
said it while it was "very encouraging" that
some governments provided "unprecedented"
support for businesses forced to close
by pandemic restrictions, it warned that
most countries do not have the means for
such spending, meaning "headwinds"
remain for global growth.
Developing countries "have less policy
capacity to support activity than advanced
was arrested there.
Another arrest was made in
Bratislava. According to the
spokesperson, the women are
accused of professional smuggling.
They are alleged to have
economies", the OECD said, meaning
that weighed against pre-pandemic
expectations, "output shortfall" in developing
economies could be "more than
twice that in the median advanced economy"
by the end of 2022. A "disturbing"
scarcity of coronavirus vaccines in poorer
countries could sharpen the divide, the
Organization added.
Raids in Germany target organised migrant smuggling
smuggled people from Vietnam
to Germany via flats in
Slovakia.
"Smuggling wages" of
13,000 to 21,000 euros
($15,850-$25,600) were
demanded, the spokesperson
said.
The people concerned were
then forced to work off the
resulting debts in nail or massage
studios or in so-called
brothel flats, police said.
According to the spokesperson,
the operation was carried out
on behalf of the Berlin Public
Prosecutor's Office and the
Leipzig Public Prosecutor's
Office.
This was embedded in
investigations by Europol.
Covid: Inserting breathing tubes early may cut ICU stay
London : Inserting breathing tubes
early may reduce Covid-19 patients'
ICU stay by a week, claims a study.
The study, led by researchers at
McMaster University and the
University of Toronto in Canada,
looked at tracheostomies, which are a
procedure that helps patients breathe
through tubes, the Daily Mail reported.
The findings, published in the
peer-reviewed medical journal JAMA
Otolaryngology - Head & Neck
Surgery, showed that tracheostomy
shortened Covid patients' stay in the
ICU when it was done within two
weeks of their arrival.
In addition, the procedure didn't
pose a significant risk to healthcare
workers if they use personal protective
equipment, the report said.
One of Covid's severe symptoms is
the inability to breathe on one's own.
The virus causes mucus and other fluids
to block patients' lungs, making it
difficult for air to get through.
In the usual scenario, doctors insert
a breathing tube into a patient -- in a
procedure called tracheostomy -- on
patients after spending two weeks on a
ventilator. The procedure involves cutting
a hole into a patient's neck -- connected
to their windpipe -- and hooking
that tube up to the ventilator. It
helps air flow more easily into the
lungs.
But, the medical community has
different opinions on performing the
procedure -- and its timing.
To examine what benefits the procedure
may have for patients, the team
conducted a systematic review and
meta-analysis of 69 studies.
The results conflict with past guidance
to physicians, which recommends
waiting 14 days to give a
patient breathing tubes so that the doctor
can ensure they really do need
breathing help for an extended period
of time.
Another concern, especially when
it's done earlier is that it can endanger
the healthcare workers tending to ICU
patients.
While cutting into a patient's neck
or moving a ventilator during this procedure,
coronavirus particles will
escape from the patient. This is a riskier
process when it's done soon after a
patient has arrived at the hospital,
since Covid patients tend to be at a
higher risk of infecting others within
the first two weeks of their disease.
The National Institute of Health
recommends extreme caution during
tracheostomies for this reason.
The researchers found, however,
that only five per cent of studies in
their summary analysis reported
healthcare workers testing positive
after a breathing tube procedure, the
report said.

www.theasianindependent.co.uk
NEWS
01-06-2021 to 15-06-2021
13
BJP-RSS Politics and Economic
Plight of DALITS IN INDIA
(Samaj Weekly)- India’s caste system
is the major obstacle for betterment
of the socio-economic condition of the
downtrodden. The lowest in the rung of
caste hierarchy, the victims of caste
oppression are addressed as dalits or
Scheduled Castes (SC). There are others
who are also on the lower scale of hierarchy,
the tribal (ST) and other backward
castes (OBC). For centuries the
low castes were subject to oppression at
multiple levels. Theirs’ was a sort of
slavery couched in the wrap of religion.
Many Hindu scriptures gave the rigid
outline of the social system. One such
scripture has been Manu Smiriti which
was burnt in a public protest by the
greatest of the caste opponents Dr.
Bhimrao Babasaheb Ambedkar.
As the opposition to caste structure
started coming up during freedom
movement of India, the reaction to this
was Hindu Nationalism, rather
Brahmanic Nationalism. It was the
Brahmanic stream of Hinduism which
has been most rigid about the oppression
of lower castes. This Brahmanic
Nationalism presented itself as Hindu
nationalism and got expressed in Hindu
Mahasabha and RSS. RSS thrived over
a period of time and currently is the
most powerful organization in the country.
It is working for restoration of
Caste, gender hierarchy and inequality
of older times.
It is an overarching formation working
in all spheres of life and its progeny
working in political arena is Bharatiya
Janata Party (BJP), which is ruling the
country from last seven years. It is very
subtle in presenting its agenda which is
against dalits and other downtrodden.
BJP poses to be associating with dalits
while its policies are meant to subjugate
this community. It has multiple strategies
to win them over for electoral purposes
while modifying the policies in a
direction which are detrimental to the
all round conditions of dalits, including
their economic conditions.
BJP-RSS and anti-dalit ideology
BJP came to political forefront when
it started its campaign for Ram Temple
in the decade of 1980. In 1990
V.P.Singh implemented Mandal
Commission, which gave 27% reservation
to the other backward Castes.
Earlier the SC had 15% of reservation,
ST 7.5% and now OBC reservation was
added up to that. This made BJP more
assertive and its support base, the upper
caste, came forward to support BJP
campaigns for Ram temple and other
divisive agenda, pushing the social
equality attempts in the backyard. This
identity based Ram temple campaign
also served the purpose of distracting
the attention from the plight of
oppressed sections of society as well.
The period up to 2014, (2004 to 2014
period was the time when Congress led
UPA was in power) saw that on one
hand despite the opposition to affirmative
action for dalits there was effort to
implement it. On the other hand BJP
was building itself to oppose the policy
of reservation for dalits on one hand and
to co-opt them into its ideological and
political fold.
UPA I (2004-2009) came up with
rights based approach, ‘Right to information’,
‘right to employment’, ‘right to
education’, ‘right to health’ and ‘right to
food’. This benefitted the large sections
of dalits living below the poverty line.
The ongoing affirmative action’s during
many decades after independence did
lift the dalit’s conditions to some extent.
Still due to the deeply entrenched caste
system, the affirmative provisions were
not implemented as they should have
been. So in a way the process of social
transformation till 2014 was at snail’s
pace anyway.
The major change in the condition of
dalits has been due to reservations
which were mandated by the constitution
and which aimed to break the
shackles of caste backwardness and
improve the condition of dalits. RSS-
BJP has been opposed to this all
through, overtly or covertly. Mandal
Commission was a turning point in a
way as RSS-BJP activated its mechanism
for opposing the same indirectly
by raising the pitch of Ram temple campaign.
They did float organizations like
‘Youth for Equality’. Social debates
were popularised against reservation.
Reservation: Creamy Layer
The overall picture before BJP coming
to power was summed up by prominent
academic Sukhdeo Thorat. As per
him “dalits are employed in manual,
unskilled labor jobs in urban areas.
Given these facts, only 5% of the working
dalit population has actually benefited
from the Indian reservation law.” (1)
As per him while GOI poverty alleviation
programs help dalits, the government
does not strictly monitor them and
many are never implemented…and the
vast majority of dalits are denied
upward socioeconomic mobility due to
lack of access to education, land, and
capital.
Further worsening of the situation
began with BJP coming to power at
Centre. The first attempt BJP initiated
was at state level and then at Centre was
to introduce ‘reservation based on economic
ground’. Also there is a talk that
creamy layers will be excluded from the
reservations. The ‘creamy layers’ means
those who have better socio economic
status. Dilip Mandal, another scholar
points out,“ for the first time, the central
government is going to include an individual’s
salary to calculate household
earnings, which would determine the
creamy layer category for members of
that family. In one stroke, a large number
of salary earners will be excluded
from the ambit of OBC quota.” (2)
Further Mandal elaborates, ”The proposed
criteria, if implemented, will
exclude even the lower middle class
OBCs. Take the example of a family
where both parents are primary school
teachers. In all probability, their combined
annual salary would be above Rs
12 lakh. Now, if their daughter applies
for a government job, she will not be
considered for the OBC quota.” (3)
Introducing reservation on Economic
Ground has further weakened the position
of the status of dalits. BJP led NDA
passed the resolution approving 10%
– Ram Puniyani
quota for upper caste on economic criterion.
These criterion are liberal enough
to include large sections of population
at the cost of reservation of the
dalits/OBC.
BJP Identity Politics and Lynching
in name of Cow-Beef
BJP’s main plank in political arena is
identity politics. This politics is based
on polarization and creating a sense of
fear among majority for the minority
community. In pursuit of this while they
have been pursuing the Ram Temple
issue earlier; from 2014 when BJP got
majority for the first time; it took the
issue of Holy cow to higher pitch leading
to mob lynching of Muslims and
dalits. Both these communities are related
to occupations of cow slaughter and
leather work. The IndiaSpend data tells
us the massive increase in the lynching
with BJP coming to power and also
increase in atrocities against dalits. This
runs parallel to the impact on economic
situation of dalits as the sale/purchase of
old cows has massively declined and
those involved in these trades, primarily
dalits have suffered huge economic setback.
“Muslims were the target of 51%
of violence centered on bovine issues
over nearly eight years (2010 to 2017)
and comprised 86% of 28 Indians killed
in 63 incidents. As many of 97 per cent
of these attacks were reported after
Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government
came to power in May 2014,
and about half the cow-related violence
— 32 of 63 cases –were from states
governed by the Bharatiya Janata Party
(BJP), recorded until June 25, 2017.”
(5)
Running parallel to this was attacks
on dalits who were dealing with
Cowhide. In Una (Gujarat) seven dalit
youth were stripped above the waist and
beaten mercilessly. Following this the
usual economic cycle of old cattle being
bought and sold got a setback giving an
adverse impact to the economic plight
of many dalit families. “A new report by
‘Human Rights Watch’ reveals the
impact of ‘cow protection’ on agriculture,
industries and India’s minorities.
The report looks at the issue of cowrelated
violence and its impact on
India’s minorities. The report analyses
the socio-political, legal and economic
issues around cattle trade and cow-related
violence. Indian government should
prevent and prosecute mob violence by
vigilante groups targeting minorities in
the name of cow protection, ‘Human
Rights Watch’ said in a report.”(6)
“The government [should] not [be]
the one to decide on [what food you can
or cannot eat]. This ban will have an ill
effect on the lives of the Dalits who are
[dependent] upon the labor connected
with cows and leather products.” (7)
Due to the rigidity of caste hierarchy
prevalent in India; dalits are forced to
work in very degrading jobs like scavenging
of rubbish heaps, work in
slaughter houses, tanneries, leather factories
and other menial jobs. To live in
segregation from the upper castes such
as Brahmins is a part of regular practice
here.
Reservation for Dalits in
Universities
From March 2018 UGC advertised
the faculty jobs and in this only 2.5% of
posts were reserved for SC and none for
ST. This is totally in opposition to what
the norms have been (15% for SC, 7.5%
for ST and 27% for OBC) (8) This is
going to have very adverse impact on
the economic conditions of dalits along
with change in the future academic conditions
in the country. This will worsen
the overall plight of this section of society.
Economic status
According to a 2014 report to the
Ministry of Minority Affairs by
Amitabh Kundu, over 44.8% of
Scheduled Tribe (ST) and 33.8% of
Scheduled Caste (SC) populations in
rural India were living below the poverty
line in 2011-12, compared to 30.8%
of Muslims. In urban areas, 27.3% of
ST and 21.8% of SC populations were
poor, versus 26.5% of Muslims. (9, 10)
Some Hindu Dalits achieved affluence,
although most remain poor. In
particular, some Dalit intellectuals such
as Chandrabhan Prasad have argued that
the living standards of many Dalits have
improved since the economic liberalization
in 1991 and have supported their
claims through large surveys. (11)
According to Socio Economic and
Caste Census 2011, nearly 79 percent of
rural Adivasi households and 73 percent
for Dalit households were most
deprived among rural households in
India. While 45 percent of scheduled
caste households are landless and earn
by manual casual labor for their living
and same is for 30 percent for adivasis.(12)
A 2012 survey by Mangalore
University in Karnataka stated that 93%
of dalit families still live below the
poverty line.(13) The budget (2020) has
failed to give due share to the Dalits,
Adivasis, working class, Women and
Children. It has also failed to take concrete
steps to resolve the economic crisis
prevalent in the primary sector of the
economy, i.e., Agriculture. Instead of
providing the farmers with substantial
financial relief, they have been left in a
world of false hopes and promises.
Also, education and health have not
been provided with the kind of attention
they badly need. (14) Congress president
Rahul Gandhi has criticized the
RSS and the BJP for the plight of Dalits
and said he praised dalit community
who are coming forward to protest
against these policies. He commented
this when many Dalit organisations had
called for a nation-wide shutdown with
strong determination against the dilution
of arrest prevalent provisions under
the SC/ST
Atrocities Act by the
Supreme Court.( 15)
BJP’s Strategies to Co-opt Dalits
RSS-BJP faces a unique dilemma.
On one hand they want to ensure the
subordination of dalits at all social levels.
On the other they have to win over
the electoral benefits of these communities.
Through various of its organizations,
RSS, achieves this. They are
employing multiple strategies to win
over there marginalized communities.
Their affiliated organizations doing this
are Vishwa Hindu Parishad, Vanavasi
Klayan Ashram, Bajrang Dal, Seva
Bharati to name the few. They have
tried to increase Brahminic religiosity at
all the levels. They have picked up some
of the icons from these marginalized
communities and revived them through
Hindu Nationalist lens. In addition they
have lured some of the leaders of these
communities with the bait of pelf and
power.
The BJP’s landslide victory in the
2014 general election was helped by
Dalit votes. Currently, 84 parliament
seats are reserved for Dalits as those
constituencies are dominated by Dalit
people. In 2014, the BJP won 40 of
them, according to a study by the Centre
for the Study of Developing
Societies(CSDS).
One such study, CSDS post-poll
analysis after the 2019 Lok Sabha elections,
showed that between 2014 and
2019; support for the BJP among Dalits,
Adivasis and Other Backward castes
has more than doubled (16).
Incidentally they comprise large section
of poor people in the state. Similarly the
2021 post-poll survey also indicates that
this support is becoming much higher
among Dalits and OBCs than among
upper castes.
This has been the strategy of BJP all
over. Cambridge sociologist Manali
Desai demonstrates the diverse ways
used by this party for Adivasis and dalits.
These groups find that they feel BJP
offered them respect and recognition
more than other parties. (17) In their
perception this party treats them as
equal members of society. It seems
these social groups seem to perceive a
sense of dignity which motivates them
to vote for BJP. This is what explains
the BJP’s attitude towards Matua community,
which is in large numbers in
West Bengal. This is what explains
Modi’s visit to Bangla desh and a visit
to Matua Mandir.
The situation may not remain the
same as this community feels they have
been betrayed.
See Page 24

14 01-06-2021 to 15-06-2021 NEWS
www.theasianindependent.co.uk
Palestine deserve a better hearing and
support from the rest of the world
(Samaj Weekly)- Two historical
things have happened recently which
have been passed off as non entity
because it hurt the business interest of
the powerful nations. The UN Human
Rights Council adopted a resolution to
form an International inquiry commission
to investigate, ‘ “grave human
rights situation in the Occupied
Palestinian Territory, including East
Jerusalem” including violation of
International laws and treaties, and all
underlying root causes of recurrent tensions,
instability and protraction of conflict,
including systematic discrimination
and repression based on national,
ethnic, racial or religious identity on or
before April 13th, 2021. The
Commission shall be appointed by the
President of the UN Human Rights
Council and it seeks cooperation from
all the parties.
The adoption of a resolution also
explained and exposed the western
hypocrisy on the issue. UK, Germany
and Austria and six other countries,
were the main proponents of opposing
the resolution. Sadly, it was Germany
and Austria where Hitler and other
Nazis tortured and killed a large number
of Jews. Of course, the decisive role
that UK played in snatching the
Palestinian land to hand over to Israel
can not be kept aside.
France, Brazil, Denmark, India,
Italy, Japan, Netherlands, South Korea
and six other countries (total 14) made
them absent during the voting though
they participated in the discussion.
Now, this is a clever ploy to please all
the sides without focussing on the issue
of violation of human rights and Israel’s
continuous negation of the international
laws. It is not possible without open
support from the United States, UK,
France and Germany. India has joined
in this league in recent years as the
Sangh Parivar and its ideologues consider
Israel a ‘friendly’ country overturning
our historical legacy of standing
with Palestinian people.
Those who supported the motion
were Argentina, Bangladesh, Bolivia,
China, Cuba, Indonesia, Mexico,
Namibia, Pakistan, Philippines,
Russian Federation, Senegal, and
Venezuela. In total 24 countries supported
the motion. The Muslim countries
have been feeling uncomfortable
on the issue for long though the dominant
among them like Saudi Arabia and
other middle eastern countries have
made their relationship with Israel
stronger and have not been able to get a
fair deal for their Palestinian brothers
and sisters. It was therefore interesting
to see China, Cuba, Russia joining
hands with other countries to ensure
that Israel is made accountable for all
its acts of intimidation and violence
against the Palestine people.
For the first time in recent history,
Israel has faced this international solidarity
though we know it well that the
powerful lobby led by the Americans
will thwart everything that wishes to
bring Israel to follow and respect international
laws. American administration
under Joe Bidan remains the same as
Donald Trump as far as the issue of
Israel is concerned but it is good that
Russia has decided to speak up against
Israel. Let us hope that this resolution
will bring hopes in the lives of
Palestinian people. The Western world
continues to focus on ‘retaliation’ by
Hamas but refuses to debate the whole
issue of autonomy and sovereignty of
Palestine over its territory. The fact is
that Israel’s security agencies have been
brutal and inhuman while dealing with
the Palestinian people particularly those
living in Gaza strip.
The western patronisation of Israel
has made its government more racist
and brutal. It felt that it could do anything
at its whims and fancies as any
resolution against it was vetoed by the
Americans and European nations.
European Union has not spoken categorically
on the issue but what is more
historical is the resolution passed by
Irish parliament which has condemned
the “de facto annexation” of Palestinian
land by Israeli authorities in what it said
was the first use of the phrase by a
European Union government in relation
to Israel as per reported by news agency
Reuters. The news agency quoted the
Foreign Minister of Ireland as informing
the Parliament that, “The scale,
pace and strategic nature of Israel’s
actions on settlement expansion and the
intent behind it have brought us to a
point where we need to be honest about
what is actually happening on the
ground. … It is de facto annexation,” as
per Reuters report.
Ireland’s attempt to carve out a niche
for itself and come out of the shadow of
the United Kingdom is extraordinary.
Of course, as a EU nation, it will have
to follow EU dictates too but it can
open up a new debate in European
Union.
When Israel was bombing over innocent
children and civilian areas in Gaza
Strip the world watched on great outrage
though the Hindutva friends in
India were bombarding twitter with
‘We love Israel’ ‘Stand with Israel’ or
‘Palestinian terrorists’. Of course, our
Permanent representative in the United
Nations was condemning violence in
Gaza Strip in a very ‘balanced’ presentation.
Unfortunately, the Hindu right
wing in India love any one that shows
Muslims as terrorists or unwanted.
Israel for them is a ‘role model’ as it can
do things at its ‘whims and
fancy’. The Hindutva ideologues
and cheerleaders
By Vidya Bhushan Rawat
social and human rights activist
want India to be or behave
like Israel. It is also the
great ignorance that the
Sanghis love and celebrate Hitler and
Israel both together.
In India, our leadership, right from
Jawahar Lal Nehru till Indira Gandhi
have been very pragmatic and supportive
of Palestinian struggle for their
homeland. Jawahar Lal Nehru always
stood with the rights of Palestine and
sent Indian forces to the UN
Emergency Force to be stationed in
Gaza. In 1960, he went to meet Indian
troops when returning from an official
visit from the UK after participating in
the Commonwealth Prime minister’s
conference in London. It is also a fact
that Israel tried to kill Nehru when the
UN mission plane was taking him back
to Beirut. Nehru was not on official
visit but just stopped over at Beirut,
Lebanon from where he was escorted in
a UN plane. Israeli air force planes
chased his plane but because of great
maturity shown by the pilot of the UN
plane, he returned safe to Beirut.
We know how the successive government
welcomed Palestinian leader
Yasser Arafat whenever he travelled to
India. India’s policy towards Tibet,
Palestine, Namibia and South Africa
had been consistent and supportive of
the rights of the people to decide about
their fate. India was the first one in
recognising Palestinian right over their
home land as well as that of the black
people in Africa. India always supported
Palestine freedom since 1947 and
recognised Palestinian
statehood though relationship
with Palestinian
Liberation Organisation
or PLO and its leader
Yasser Arafat started
since 1974 and he was
given full respect as a
‘head of state’. It is this
reason that Arafat always
considered Indira Gandhi
as his sister and always
felt proud of India’s support to the
Palestine cause.
Yasser Arafat also participated in the
7th Non-Aligned Movement Summit in
Delhi under the chairpersonship of the
then prime minister, Mrs Indira Gandhi,
in which Cuban President Fidel Castro
too participated. On November 19th,
1988, India officially recognised
Palestinian statehood and started its foreign
mission in Ramallah.
Now, we have a government in
Delhi whose followers feel that demand
for Palestine is ‘subversive’ and that
Israel is doing the best to kill people in
Gaza when no sane public in the world
would support such mindless violence
by Israeli troops. Israel’s own paper
Haaretz published photographs of 67
children killed in Gaza due to heavy
bombardment by the Israeli troops. The
newspaper gave the photographs titled
“ The Price of War’. We all know how
Israeli forces did not bother even targeting
AFP and Aljazeera headquarters
based in Gaza Strip. The world watched
Israeli terrorism in great horror and the
country’s leadership continue to create
differences among the communities. It
is important for all the nations of the
world to not vilify their own citizens
who happened to be minorities. The
Palestinian or Muslim citizens of Israel
face enormous difficulties even in getting
a home at safe places. They face
serious institutional discrimination and
social hatred. Therefore, the issue of
Palestine has to be resolved and Israel
must be asked to withdraw from Gaza
and stop intimidating and killing people
at its will. Its leadership must be made
accountable to the world. It is surprising
and shocking when we see mute
western responses to Israel’s blatant
violation of Palestine people and the
torture its forces inflict on the innocent
civilians inside the Palestinian controlled
territory. One should not forget
how Europeans and America rebuilt
Germany after Hitler was defeated. To
defeat Nazism, it was a combined effort
including the famous Nuremberg trial
that brought all those friends and allies
of Hitler who was responsible for
unleashing violence on its own citizens.
But then, Germany and Europe very
smartly exported their failure and problem
to Palestine. Have you ever heard
that the nation Palestine disappeared to
give ‘rise’ to a new nation of Israel?
Therefore, it is now the duty of the
Europeans and America to jointly work
for a permanent settlement of Palestine
and it will not be possible unless and
until Israel’s leadership face the same
kind of trials which Hitler’s associate
got after his defeat. In the best interest
of the Middle East, acceptance of Israel
as a nation should be part of the deal but
the Palestinians must get their full state
and Israel must be stopped from crossing
the boundary at its will.
Will the Irish Parliament’s resolution
and adoption of UN Human Rights
Council’s resolution and formation of
an international tribunal compel Israel
to ponder over its follies and mistakes
in the region? Will the EU and
Americans foil anything to censor
Israel? Whatever happens, it is
extremely important to bring peace in
the region which is not possible without
Palestine getting its due and Israel
respecting that line of control. No one
should try to defend brutal killings of
innocent citizens including children as
well as those reporting from the region.
Let us hope good sense will prevail and
Israel’s leadership will understand that
their adventures have no takers and
therefore they will have to respect the
sovereignty and autonomy of Palestine.
International community has to respond
to this as any delay in providing justice
to Palestinian people will only harm
peace process in the middle east.
Vidya Bhushan Rawat is a social
and human rights activist. He blogs
at www.manukhsi.blogspot.com
twitter @freetohumanity
Email: vbrawat@gmail.com

www.theasianindependent.co.uk
NEWS
01-06-2021 to 15-06-2021
15
How Punjab’s Dalit Labourers Are
Trapped to Live a Bonded Life
A survey revealed that big peasants, who were among the top lenders to the labourers,
gave them loans in the garb of paying low daily wages.
Vivek Gupta
Mansa, Patiala (Punjab): A narrow
dirt road alongside a filthy pond enters
Neelam’s one room house at Aklia village
of Punjab’s Mansa district. The
house is just a pile of bricks. The floor
is muddy and uneven.
Neelam, in her 40s, says that whenever
heavy rain lashes the village, her
house is under dirty pond water for
days. But it is the least of her problems.
Her husband, a landless Dalit
labourer, died of tuberculosis in 2015,
leaving her and four daughters in
penury. Neelam turned to odd jobs
after her husband’s death.
In 2019 she got her elder daughter
married and this made her life even
worse. To wed her daughter, she borrowed
Rs 75,000 from five upper caste
zamindar families in her village (Rs
15000 from each lender).
As the prevailing system goes, in
lieu of interest, she had to work as a
labour for their cattle as well as house
chores at nominal wages.
Her earnings would be adjusted
against her principal amount every
month. She will continue to work on
the same wages until the entire loan is
repaid.
Two years on, she has been toiling
hard all day, feeding and cleaning their
cattle and also working as domestic
help. Yet her loan liability is far from
over. Neelam says more than 70% of
her loan amount is still pending.
“It is because each house deducts
just Rs 400 per month from the total
outstanding, which amounts to not
even Rs 15 per day,” she says.
Neelam with her daughters in her
village in Aklia, Punjab. Photo: Vivek
Gupta
Neelam says a registered MGNRE-
GA worker in her village gets Rs 215
per day for eight hours’ job. “Here my
whole day passes clearing their
‘Gohaa-Kura’ (scavenging cow dung
and house chores). Yet I earn much
less,” she adds painfully.
“Meri Mazboori Aa Ki Karze De
Thale Aaye Hoyen Aaan, (It is my
compulsion to continue working this
way because I am under their debt),”
she adds.
She says, “I took the loan specifically
for their ‘Gohaa-Kura’ work. If I
want to work outside, I will have to
clear my debt first,” says Neelam.
Sometimes Neelam takes small
advances, say Rs 200 or Rs 300, for
some urgent medical or domestic use.
It only ends up increasing her outstanding
liability.
Bhola Singh, a local activist of
Mansa-based Mazdoor Mukti Morcha,
an outfit working on labourer issues,
says that it is common in villages here
to trap the poor labourers in debt and
then keep them bondage for years in
garb of cheap labour.
In Mansa, there are numerous such
examples where debt is predominant
factor in worrisome situation of poor
Dalit families.
The catch here is that the loan once
taken is not easily repaid since the
poor are always short of resources due
to low wages, and they continue to
take more loans for their survival, and
stay in bondage for years under rich
lenders, he adds.
Women worst affected
In 2017, Bathinda-based Punjab
Khet Mazdoor Union conducted a survey
about the debt on agricultural
landless labourers in Punjab in the
wake of state government’s refusal to
write off their debt citing the lack of
data. A total 1,618 poor labourer families
of 13 villages in six districts
(Bathinda, Sri Muktsar Sahib,
Faridkot, Moga, Sangrur and
Jalandhar) were interviewed. The survey
revealed that big peasants possessing
10 acres and above land were
among the top lenders to the labourers,
giving them loans in the garb of paying
low daily wages.
As per the survey, the ultimate
casualties of these loans were the
women of these indebted families who
spend their lives scavenging the dung
or rubbish in the homes of landed
peasants and landlords in lieu of the
interest on the loan taken.
“This aspect shows labour power
bound with the chains of feudal
exploitation,” the survey added.
On why poor families are forced to
raise loans, the survey said that
employment in the agricultural sector
has been hit hard by mechanisation.
On account of this situation, the gap
between the income of agricultural
workers and the expenditure incurred
by them has increased.
This condition has made the fulfillment
of the basic needs of the agricultural
workers impossible. Under these
circumstances, the agricultural workers
have been left with no option but to
raise loans, the survey added.
The larger part of these loans, the
survey added, were used by these borrowers
to fulfil unavoidable circumstances
arising out of dire necessities
like to reconstruct the rooms and walls
fallen during heavy rains, marriages of
daughters, to construct additional
room to cater the compelling need
arising out the marriage of their sons
or immediate medical treatments.
As per the survey, the debt on 1,364
families out of 1,618 families interviewed
was Rs 12.47 crore, which
amounts to Rs 91,437 per family. To
their financial standard, this amount is
huge, it added. Neelam, who is under
debt, is not alone in her village facing
hardship. Ranjit Kaur, in her late 50s,
says that ever since she was married in
this village she has been doing labour
in the fields and houses of village
lenders. “Our problem is that the
needs of the poor are unending and
resources are very limited. Borrowing,
therefore, has become an only option.
We can’t overcome it until we earn
enough resources for our daily needs,”
she remarks.
Multidimensional issue
Professor Anupama of Patialabased
Punjabi University’s department
of economics, who has extensively
studied labour issues in Punjab, says
that the exploitation of downtrodden
women is the worst form of debt
bondage in Punjab.
“There are instances where debt has
passed from one generation to another
as it remains unpaid in one life cycle
of a borrower,” she adds.
On why this problem is prevalent,
she says it is a multi-dimensional issue
and has both economic and social reasons.
For instance, in farm economics,
farmers have no control over input
cost except labour that they can try to
control. The rich farmers do it to keep
their profit margin high while moderate
or small farmers are under pressure
to keep their input cost low due to
wider questions of their sustainability.
The caste structure in Punjab also
plays its role, she adds.
“The lenders are usually from
upper caste families while labourers in
Punjab comprise mostly Dalits who
are predominantly rural by residence
and dependent on farm labour for their
livelihood,” says Anupama.
Punjab, as per 2010-11 population
census, has highest percentage of Dalit
population in the country that is 32%
but it is the upper caste Jat Sikhs who
have large landholdings while Dalits
possess only 63,480 (6.02%) of the 1.1
million operational land holdings in
the state. Of the 523,000 families living
below the poverty line in Punjab,
321,000 (61.4%) are Dalits.
Anupama says whatever may be the
circumstances, the dignity and livelihood
of the labourers should not be
comprised, She adds the proper implementation
of minimum wage system
and enlarging the scope of national
rural job guarantee under MGNREGA
can somewhat help the poor labourers
to overcome fiscal difficulties.
“In Punjab, both these things are
grossly lacking. Average employability
under MGNREGA in Punjab is less
than 40 days a year, much less than
stipulated 100 day job guarantee
scheme. Then there are large discrepancies
in roping in people who are
really in need of work due to undue
interference of sarpanches and petty
corruption, she adds.
The working conditions are equally
bad for landless labourers. There is no
holiday for them. In case they are not
well, their family members replace
them for work. Gurmail Singh, a farm
labourer from Hasanpur village in
Mansa, still remembers how he was
beaten by his employer two years ago
just because he did not report to work
for a day due to death in his family.
There was a death in my wife’s family.
I had to attend his Bhog ceremony
in another village.
“Upon my return, I found that the
employer took away my cattle as I did
not report to work that day. On my
way back home, I went to take it back.
I was then mercilessly beaten,” says
Gurmail Singh. On his complaint, a
police case was also slapped against
his employers later. Farm labourer
Gurmail Singh (front) who was beaten
by his employer. Photo: Vivek Gupta
Similarly, education is worst affected
among landless labourers.
Neelam’s married daughter could not
study beyond class 8 as she often
accompanied her mother to work.
As per Census 2011, the literacy
rate among Scheduled Castes (SCs) in
Punjab is 64.81% as compared to total
literacy rate of 75.84% of the state and
73.00% of the country as a whole. The
female literacy rate of SCs at 58.39%
in the state also lags behind that of
total 70.73% of the state.
Labour attachment practice creating
new conflicts
In Punjab villages, hiring farm
labourers for a year or more against a
lump sum amount is a common practice.
The state labour department has
fixed Rs 354 per day as minimum
wages for farm labour.
Under this labour attachment practice,
the employer bypasses the minimum
wage system and makes the
labourer work for a full year and
extends the tenure further at much less
wages.
This practice has, however, created
a new set of complications between
employers and their labourers.
Nikka Singh, an agricultural
labourer from village Lalocha on
Patiala-Sangrur road was roped in by a
landed peasant for one year at a lump
sum amount of Rs 85,000 in 2018.
Nikka says that he went on to work
for him for over two and half years but
the payment of his wages was staggered
and there was no hike either.
“I was paid Rs 85,000 only once at
the beginning of the contract. Later I
never got full contractual wages,” says
Nikka. He adds, “When I asked for my
wages and further hike in March this
year, my employers claimed no pendency.”
“I left the job and a month
later, my employer slapped a case
against me under the Negotiable
Instrument Act claiming that I had
borrowed Rs 3.5 lakh from him,” he
says. “I had no knowledge of it.
See Page 24

16 01-06-2021 to 15-06-2021 NEWS
www.theasianindependent.co.uk
China must return the stolen Tibetan
child -- The 11th Panchen Lama
For the past 26 years, followers of
Tibetan Buddhism have been waiting
patiently for a glimpse of their spiritual
leader, Gedhun Choekyi Nyima, The
11th Panchen Lama of Tibet. This is
still yet to materialise.
Born 25th April 1989, Gedhun
Choekyi Nyima was recognised as the
reincarnation of the 10th Panchen Lama
by His Holiness the Dalai Lama as per
the Tibetan Buddhist tradition, on 14th
May 1995. Within days of his public
recognition, on 17th May, the six-year
old Gedhun Choekyi Nyima disappeared
with his parents and Jadrel
Rinpoche, Head of Tashi Lhunpo
Monastery in Shigatse, who was in
secretly in touch with the Dalai Lama in
India regarding the 11th Panchen
Lama's search. Jadrel Rinpoche was
appointed as the Head of the Panchen
Lama Search Committee, entrusted by
the Chinese Government.
Six months later, China announced
its own 11th Panchen Lama, Gyaincain
Norbu as the reincarnation of the previous
10th Panchen Lama.
For Tibetan Buddhists, the Dalai
Lama's recognised 11th Panchen Lama,
Gedhun Choekyi Nyima is the true reincarnation
of Tibet's second highest spiritual
leader. Despite repeated requests
for access, the whereabouts of the Dalai
Lama's recognised Panchen Lama is not
still known to anyone to this day, except
to the Chinese authorities. At the time
of his disappearance in 1995, Gedhun
Choekyi Nyima became the world's
youngest political prisoner.
The mysterious death of the 10th
Panchen Lama in 1989 is still a fresh
memory to many of his followers.
Tibetans suspect foul play by the
Chinese authorities over their spiritual
leader's untimely death 32 years ago.
Significance of The Panchen Lama
The successive throne holders of the
Panchen Lama lineage have contributed
immensely to the temporal and spiritual
traditions of Tibet. Tashi Lhunpo
Monastery, founded in 1447 by the 1st
Dalai Lama, is the traditional monastic
seat of the Panchen Lama. It is a historically
and culturally important Buddhist
monastery based in Shigatse, Tibet's
second-largest city.
The 10th Panchen Lama's significant
contribution to the cause of the Tibetan
people both in temporal and spiritual
traditions, especially at a time of critical
danger of being wiped out by the
Chinese Communist regime cannot be
discounted easily.
Following the illegal invasion of
Tibet by the People's Republic of
China, and with the subsequent escape
of the Dalai Lama into exile in India, in
March 1959, the Chinese government
courted the 10th Panchen Lama and
appointed him as Chairman of the
Preparatory Committee for the establishments
of the Tibet Autonomous
Region (TAR). In 1960, Beijing named
him Vice-Chairman of the National
People's Congress (NPC) of the
People's Republic of China (PRC) in
order that he acts as the spokesperson
for Chinese policy in Tibet.
Formally established in 1965, the
Tibet Autonomous Region (TAR)
became Beijing's newly-designed political
entity aimed at splitting the whole
Tibetan Nation into several
regions. Other traditional Tibetan
regions including Amdo (northeast)
and Kham (east) were incorporated
into neighbouring Chinese
provinces such as Qinghai, Gansu,
Yunnan and Sichuan. For Tibetans,
Tibet comprises Dotoe (Kham),
Domed (Amdo) and Utsang (central)
- the three Cholkhas.
The Panchen Lama's 70,000-
character petition
After official tours across various
places in Tibet, the 10th
Panchen Lama started documenting
his findings, started in Shigatse
and completed in Beijing. Along
with his recommendations, the
Panchen Lama submitted the findings
to Chinese Premier Zhou Enlai
in 1962 - widely known as the
70,000-character petition.
In his official report, the
Panchen Lama denounced the draconian
policies and actions of the
Chinese Communist Party (CCP) in
Tibet. He also criticised the Great Leap
Forward and a multitude of "inept
orders" on the part of the CCP which
had caused chronic food shortages.
In Beijing, the Panchen Lama also
urged Mao Tsetung to "put an end to the
abuses committed against the Tibetan
people, to increase their food rations, to
provide adequate care for the elderly
and the poor, and to respect religious
liberty." Mao listened to him but did
nothing to address the matters raised.
According to British journalist
Isabel Hilton, the 70,000-character petition
remains the "most detailed and
informed attack on China's policies in
Tibet that would ever be written."
For several decades, the Panchen
Lama's petition remained hidden from
all but the very highest levels of the
Chinese leadership, until one copy surfaced
in 1996. In January 1998, to coincide
with the 60th anniversary of the
birth of the late 10th Panchen Lama, an
English translation by Tibet expert Prof.
Robert Barnett entitled A Poisoned
Arrow: The Secret Report of the 10th
Panchen Lama, was published by the
London-based Tibet Information
Network (TIN), now a defunct news
research agency on Tibet.
In 1964, the 10th Panchen Lama was
publicly humiliated at Politburo meetings,
dismissed from all posts of authority,
declared 'an enemy of the Tibetan
people', and later imprisoned. At the
time he was 26 years old. The Tibetan
spiritual leader's situation worsened
when the Cultural Revolution started.
The Chinese dissident Wei Jingsheng,
who was a former Red Guard, published
in March 1979 a letter under his
name but written by another anonymous
author denouncing the conditions
at Qincheng Prison, where the 10th
Panchen Lama was in captivity. In
October 1977 the Panchen Lama was
released, but held under house arrest in
Beijing until 1982. After his release, the
Panchen Lama served as Vice
Chairman of the National People's
Congress.
Tseten Wangchuk, a senior Tibetan
journalist working for the Voice of
America's (VOA) Tibetan section in the
United States, reported that during a
1980 meeting between the Secretary of
the Communist Party Hu Yaobang and
the Panchen Lama, the latter told Hu
"how much he was moved by his
reforms, and remarked that had the suggestions
of the 70,000-character petition
been put in place when they were
proposed, the problems in Tibet would
not have endured.
The 70,000-character petition was
founded on the principle that the specific
characteristics of Tibet should be
taken into account. This premise was
central to the policies of Deng Xiaoping
in China during the 1980s and allowed
the Panchen Lama to introduce numerous
liberalisations into Tibet. However,
in early 1992, the CCP removed the
concession concerning the "specific
characteristics" of Tibet, and current
policy monitors religious practices and
the monasteries, limits the instruction
of Tibetan language, and has since suppressed
some of the religious and cultural
liberalisations implemented by Hu
Yaobang and requested by the Panchen
Lama.
In March 1999, during the annual
commemoration of Tibetan National
Uprising of Lhasa in 1959, the Dalai
Lama declared that "the 70,000-character
petition published in 1962 by the
former Panchen Lama constitutes an
eloquent historical document on the
policies carried out by the Chinese in
Tibet and on the draconian measures
put in place there."
In brief, pushing aside his own personal
safety issues, and for the sake of
the Tibetan people's identity, spiritual
practice and survival of the unique way
of life, the 10th Panchen Lama struggled
fearlessly and unrelentingly for
their preservation and promotion. He
rebuilt Tibet's religious and cultural
heritages and worked hard in the interests
of Tibetans, for which he gained
high prestige among the Tibetans. His
efforts have spread far and wide from
Tibet into the Himalayan regions, and
through these into the wider world. The
previous 10th Panchen Lama has dedicated
his whole life to Tibet and Tibetan
people.
So, why is China interfering in the
religious affairs of Tibetan people?
The "Article 36" of the Constitution
of the People's Republic of China
guarantees "Citizens of the People's
Republic of China enjoy freedom of
religious belief. No state organ, public
organization or individual may
compel citizens to believe in, or not to
believe in, any religion; nor may they
discriminate against citizens who
believe in, or do not believe in, any
religion."
In the "Note on the Memorandum
of Genuine Autonomy for the TIbetan
People", a follow-up clarification
note submitted by the Envoys of His
Holiness the Dalai Lama to the
Chinese Government after the eighth
round of talks in 2008, it states, "The
spiritual relationship between master
and student and the giving of religious
teachings, etc. are essential
components of the Dharma practice.
Restricting these is a violation of religious
freedom. Similarly, the interference
and direct involvement by the
state and its institutions in matters of
recognition of reincarnated lamas, as
provided in the regulation on management
of reincarnated lamas adopted by
the State on July 18, 2007 is a grave
violation of the freedom of religious
belief enshrined in the Chinese
Constitution."
The Dalai Lama and Panchen Lama
share a warm and friendly relationship
and have previously served as mentors
and apprentices. They hold the highest
decision-making power on the issue of
reincarnation, and each had participated
in the process of recognising each
other's reincarnation. If one of them
passes away, the other has undertaken
the responsibility of searching for the
reincarnated soul boy of the other and
vice-versa.
In his memoir, "Surviving The
Dragon: A Tibetan Lama's Account of
40 Years Under Chinese Rule", Arjia
Rinpoche, former member of the 11th
Panchen Lama Search Committee,
wrote, "As for the people of Tibet, no
matter how politics changed, for them
the Dalai Lama and the Panchen Lama
remained the sun and the moon. To this
day they believe that the reincarnations
of both must be mutually recognised to
be valid." Arjia Rinpoche, Abbott of the
renowned Kumbum Monastery in
Amdo, north-east Tibet, who had come
to the United States via Guatemala as a
political exile, wrote in his memoir,
"Tibetans clearly wanted the Fourteenth
Dalai Lama to be the final arbiter of the
identity of the true reincarnation of the
Panchen Lama."
The real intention of the Chinese
Government's appointment of
Gyaincain Norbu as the 11th Panchen
Lama as opposed to the Dalai Lama's
chosen candidate is crystal clear - a
political matter. After the Chinese government's
official announcement of its
11th Panchen Lama on 29th November
1995, Arjia Rinpoche, who was to
become his personal tutor, recalled the
remarks made by Ye Xiaowen, Director
of the State Administration for
Religious Affairs, "When the Dalai
Lama announced the name of his chosen
candidate, the government immediately
sent out charter jets, usually
reserved for members of the Politburo,
to the birthplaces of the three final candidates
in the Naqu district of Tibet.
They put the boys and their families on
the three jets and whisked them away
into hiding."
On their return to Beijing from
Lhasa, in the chartered plane, dumbfounded
Arjia Rinpoche recalled Ye
Xiaowen stating, "When we made our
selection we left nothing to chance. In
the silk pouches of the ivory pieces we
put a bit of cotton at the bottom of one
of them, so it would be a little higher
than the others and the right candidate
would be chosen". Gyaincain Norbu's
parents are CCP officials.
In 2019, Gyaincain Norbu was made
Head of the China Buddhist
Association. The Chinese government
will use its chosen Panchen Lama to
tour the world and is expected to speak
on freedom of religion enjoyed by
everyone in China.
During Ye Xiaowen's directorship at
the State Administration for Religions
Affair, not only did we see persecutions
of Buddhists, Christians, Muslims and
Falun Gong followers but he was
instrumental in appointing Gyancian
Norbu as the 11th Panchen Lama.
Further under Ye's watch, he
declared "State Religious Affairs
Bureau Order No. 5" that attempted to
reduce the influence of the 14th Dalai
Lama and other foreign groups on the
reincarnations in Tibet.
Chinese government over the years
has made concerted efforts to bring
down the image of the Dalai Lama by
labelling him as "separatist". The CCP
has also banned the photos of the Dalai
Lama and possessing his photos is considered
as an act of crime.
At the heart of all these things is the
issue of reincarnation of the Dalai
Lama. For years the Chinese government
has been grooming its own
Panchen Lama. It is most likely that he
will play an instrumental role in deciding
the reincarnation of the next Dalai
Lama in China. This is expected to lead
to two Dalai Lamas in the future if the
current Dalai Lama decides to keep the
tradition of reincarnation of the Dalai
Lama continues.
The fact of the matter is that the
issue of reincarnation of the Dalai Lama
is not limited to China and the Dalai
Lama but it now has larger geopolitical
consideration with security implications
in the Himalayan regions.
The US has shown its full support
for Tibet on the reincarnation issue i.e.
whatever the Tibetan people decide to
choose. It has, in late 2020, passed the
Tibet Policy and Support Act (TPSA)
and it sends a strong message to China
that the US stands steadfast with the
Dalai Lama and the Central Tibetan
Administration (aka Tibetan
Government-in-exile) on the issue of
Tibetan reincarnation. Home to millions
of Buddhists, especially Tibetan
Buddhism, the great nation of India too
can play a supporting role to His
Holiness the Dalai Lama as well as to
the Central Tibetan Administration
towards the continuity of the Dalai
Lama's reincarnation system as per the
Tibetan tradition.
(Tsering Passang is the Founder &
Convener, Global Alliance for Tibet &
Persecuted Minorities)

www.theasianindependent.co.uk
NEWS
01-06-2021 to 15-06-2021
17
Our Constitution does not permit such liberal
use of NSA : Justice Govind Mathur
The retired judge and former Chief Justice of Allahabad High Court spoke about a range of issues
from role of judiciary to post retirement appointments of judges to curtailment of civil liberties
Former Chief Justice of Allahabad
High Court, Justice Govind Mathur, in a
conversation with Indian Express,
spoke about misuse of sedition law,
National Security Act (NSA) and protecting
citizens against any event not in
accordance with the law. On dealing
with ideological issues that become a
part of law he said, “If ideology is in
conflict with law, we are required to
protect the law.”
Speaking up against the government
Justice Mathur also raised concerns
over the state “taking several actions or
sometimes supporting the mob that is
attacking civil liberties of individuals”
and emphasised upon the role of courts
in protecting civil liberties. He believes
that “99.9% of the citizens of this country
are committed to this nation” and
said that if someone is raising slogans
against some legislation, it does not
mean they are waging a war against the
state.
“In Uttar Pradesh, I don’t know what
has happened, but many people think
that they can take law into their hands,
they can punish people on roads and,
unfortunately, to some extent, the government
failed to protect such people,”
he added.
He also voiced his opinion on the
much liberal use of NSA. “Recently, I
read somewhere that if any person is
"11% reported that it is likely they
will have to make redundancies in the
next 3-6 months putting a potential
1.85 million jobs at risk across the
UK"
Owner managed businesses coming
out of the third lockdown are still
struggling with the impact of Covid-19
and an uncertain economic outlook:
11% reported that it is likely they
will have to make redundancies in the
next 3-6 months putting a potential
1.85 million jobs at risk across the UK
24% reported a negative or very
negative impact on their business since
the UK left the EU
53% of respondents identified
uncertain trading conditions as their
biggest single challenge
15% cited Brexit supply chain
issues as their single biggest challenge
Nonetheless:
84% of respondents reported that
they were either confident or somewhat
confident that they would be able
to access the finance that they needed
over the next 6 months with anecdotal
evidence suggesting that the major
banks were continuing to lend
Longer term 54% were more positive
about their economic prospects
outside the EU while 46% were less
positive.
opposing (Covid-19) protocols, he will
be dealt with under the NSA. Our system,
our Constitution doesn’t permit for
such liberal use of the NSA,” he said
and added that NSA cannot be invoked
in a circumstance which can be dealt
with other criminal laws and national
security has to be at stake in such
offences. He also pointed out that the
Advisory Board that confirms detentions
under NSA operate in a mechanical
manner and comprises bureaucrats
15% OF OWNER MANAGED
BUSINESSES STILL IN
SURVIVAL MODE
The research among 435 owner
managed businesses across the UK
was carried out between April and
May by the APA, a network of 17 leading
business advisory firms who represent
over 14,000 of these businesses.
Commenting on the findings APA
Chairman Martin Muirhead said:
“What is clear from our research is
that a significant minority of owner
managed businesses who have managed
to pull through the last 12 months
are still in survival mode with uncertain
trading conditions being the
biggest concern to a majority.
“Nonetheless there is also evidence
to suggest that those businesses that
have managed to weather the impact of
Covid-19 are now more resilient and
that existing and proposed
Government support measures have
generally been well received.
“Over the coming months it is vital
that Government maintains a flexible
and targeted approach to business support
focusing resource on those sectors
where there is the greatest need.
Owner managed businesses form the
backbone of the UK economy and
need continued, targeted support as we
emerge from this third lockdown”
More detailed sectoral and regional
breakdowns are available on request.
who are political appointees. “These are
political appointees, these nominations
are political nominations, and while
making political nominations the government
must be aware that a statutory
duty has to be discharged very seriously.
No hanky-panky business must go on
there,” he said.
Judiciary vs. Executive
He also said that the executive
should not view the judiciary as an
adversary and stressed upon the fact that
the courts protect the State which
includes the citizens and that the “State”
does not mean any political party or
government led by a political party or a
person but it is a Union of India or a
State government.
He also said that he felt guilty for the
delay that was caused in the matter
where the UP Recovery of Damage to
Public and Private Property Ordinance,
2020 was challenged before the
Allahabad High Court’s Division Bench
of which he was a part. “Unfortunately,
it was in March last year, when the pandemic
struck. Though that matter was
listed, for some reason it had to be
adjourned. It has been more than a year,
and the court has failed to decide the
issue… I feel guilty for the delay,” he
said.
When asked whether the leadership’s
commitment to the Constitution also
needs to be addressed, he answered in
the affirmative. “There is no effort on
the part of political parties as well as the
executive to have constitutional values
as our social values,” he said.
Appointments post retirement
He also opposed the phenomenon of
judges getting appointments to
Commissions and Tribunals post retirement
and said that he would not accept
any himself but he also refused to comment
on former Chief Justice of India
Ranjan Gogoi’s nomination as a Rajya
Sabha member and said he would never
accept such a nominated seat and would
rather get elected, if at all.
Women judges
Justice Mathur said that the Bar
Council of India and even state bar
councils should promote women
lawyers as well as lawyers belonging to
Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes and
minority communities. He said that the
Collegium system for appointing judges
is flawed and has caused great injury to
our justice delivering system while
emphasizing that there is a need for an
alternative system.
Situation in UP
When asked whether the orders of
the high court have been undermined by
the government, he pointed out that the
high court had passed order to put certain
cities under lockdown which was
stayed by the Supreme Court but ultimately
lockdown was imposed. He also
praised the orders passed in the Hathras
case which were not followed by the
State. “I am of the view that honouring
those directions would have enhanced
the prestige of the state also. But what
happened ultimately? When you talk
about the position of law and order in
Uttar Pradesh, I don’t think it is up to
the mark… I am not saying things like
there is jungle raj etc… But it is no less
than that,” he said.
Courtesy : Sabrang
Announcement of AANA
International Awards 2021
(Samaj Weekly)- It gives us great
who have done outstanding work in
pleasure to announce that “Dr.
Print or Digital Media.
Vijaykumar Trisharan has been chosen
We are glad to announce “National
as this year’s recipient of the Dr.
Dastak” for the MookNayak
Ambedkar International Award 2021.
Dr. Vijay Kumar Trisharan has done
phenomenal work in initiated Jhola
Pustakalaya (a Mobile bag library) concept
in rural and remote areas of
Jharkhand. He also wrote more than 30
books on various subjects. He is currently
Excellency in Journalism Award 2021.
National Dastak YouTube channel
launched in 2015 has a current reach of
more than 4.5 Million subscribers.
National Dastak is consistently raising
the issues of marginalized in digital and
social media.
president of Ambedkar Chetna
“Dr. Ambedkar International
Parishad and Buddhist Mission society.
We are also happy to announce that
the recipient of the Savitrimai Phule
Lifetime Achievement Award
The AANA Board members unanimously
decided to honour Bhante Surai
International Award 2021 is Dr. Indu
Sasai with a Dr. Ambedkar
Choudhary. Dr. Indu Chaudhary is an Dr. Vijaykumar Trisharan International Lifetime Achievement
Asst. Professor of English in Banaras
Award.
Hindu University, Varanasi India. She SAHEB AMBEDKAR.
The Dr. Ambedkar International
is General Secretary of SC/ST “Mooknayak” Excellency in Lifetime Achievement Award was
Employee Welfare Association , BHU Journalism Award
instituted from the year 2020 by the
Varanasi. She is also the Chief Editor of Ambedkar Association of North Ambedkar Association of North
an International Journal named America (AANA) initiated the America(AANA). The award is an honour
for the exceptional work done for
MOOKNAYIKA. To her credit she has “Mooknayak” Excellency in
three books published in her academics Journalism Award from 2020 year on social change over a lifetime following
and also a number of research papers in the Centenary year of Mooknayak. The the vision of Dr. Ambedkar. The award
various national and international journals
of repute. She has read many work done for raising voice and aware-
individuals/organizations who have
award is an honour for the exceptional shall be conferred on
papers in international and national ness about the social issues of marginalized
following the vision of Dr.
-Dr. Rahul Kumar,
done outstanding work
conferences. She has guided four
Doctorial thesis in her subject, one of Ambedkar. The award shall be conferred
on individuals/organizations
the topic being FEMINIST PERSPEC-
senior correspondent, the Asian
TIVE IN THE WRITINGS OF BABA
Independent, UK

18 01-06-2021 to 15-06-2021 NEWS
www.theasianindependent.co.uk
Tale of two health ministers : One succeed
despite failures while other failed despite success
India’s political culture is deeply disappointing
and depressing. Even those
who wish to counter the BJP and
Hindutva suffer from the same mind set
and sometimes worse. After ‘building’ a
brand, we side-line some to create our
own monopolies. A few days back,
Kerala lost one of its greatest left leaders
K K Gauri Amma who should have
been the chief minister of the state yet
was thoroughly isolated in the party she
dedicated her life to, compelling her to
leave the party. Gauri Amma hailed
from the historically marginalised community
of Ezhava which is categorised
as OBC in the state though many social
historians suggest that the community
was actually an untouchable community.
Though the current chief minister
Pinarayi Vijayan too hails from the
same community, Kerala has long been
dominated by the Brahmanical caste
elite. Right from EMS Namboodiripad,
who was Kerala’s first chief minister
till E K Nayanar, the longest serving
chief minister of Kerala, their position
as well as attitude towards Dalits and
marginalised remained questionable.
EMS was a proud brahmin who found a
certain ‘positive’ aspect in the caste
system. E K Nayanar would get away
with calling a Congress MLA as ‘that
Harijan’ who dances in the tone of A K
Antony.
Despite her huge mass base and
political competence, Gauri Amma
remained at the margin of her party. The
party’s top leadership did not have time
to acknowledge her contribution and
remained in persistent denial mode that
it does not believe in ‘identity’ politics.
History is repeating in Kerala. The
new Pinarayi Vijayan ministry has all
the new faces except for the chief minister.
While the CM has a right to introduce
the persons of his choice. It is
shocking to see that an efficient
Minister like K K Shailaja, who won
from the highest margin in Kerala, over
60,000 votes, did not find a place in the
Ministry. If there was one Minister
whose work has been applauded and
acknowledged internationally, it was K
K Shailaja, the then health Minister of
Kerala, for her handling of the Corona
Virus. It became a model state. Though
it is also a fact that Kerala has a well
built health infrastructure and that is a
historical legacy of the state yet at this
critical juncture Shailaja’s handling of
the situation got the LDF political benefit.
The mandate that LDF got in
Kerala is not merely the leadership of
Pinarayi Vijayan but that of K K
Shailaja too, perhaps more of her and
that seems to be the reason why she has
been dropped. In these difficult
moments, the leadership should have
pursued K K Shailaja as it would have
made things much better for the state
but then CPM always wanted to ‘give’
younger leadership a chance, except in
its ‘Polit Bureau’. In the name of new
ministers, the Chief Minister’s son in
law has found a place in the ministry.
One may ask this question as to why
KK Shailaja was not ‘included’ in the
Ministry. She too hails from Ezhava
community and is highly qualified who
has proved her worth as Health
Minister of the state. She won from the
highest margin.
Then why didn’t the chief minister
include her ? Will K K Shailaja be the
new Gauri Amma who was compelled
to leave the party. Was the chief minister
feeling threatened with the success
of K K Shailaja.
Look at the Supreme irony of India
By Vidya Bhushan Rawat
social and human rights activist
and our political culture. A highly successful
Health Minister does not find a
place in the Ministry in Kerala while
one of the worst health ministers of
independent India, whose only job is to
retweet PM’s statements, is enjoying
the complete patronage of the government
at the centre. An absolutely
incompetent health minister Harsh
Vardhan enjoy the complete faith of his
‘leader’ while a highly successful
health minister K K Shailaja, is ousted
for ‘performing’ so powerfully. Is it the
difference between how the left and
right function or is it that you are
acceptable as long as you don’t pose a
threat to the ‘supreme leader’.
Probably, supreme leaders everywhere
want dumb ministers, who can be
termed as glorified office assistants
which reduces them to just defending
the
government and accusing the opponents.
K K Shailaja’s example makes it
abundantly clear that your success in a
particular ministry may be the reason
for your ouster from the same. It looks
like every supreme leader needs a
‘Harsh Vardhan’ to keep their position
unchallenged. In BJP, every achievement
belongs to Narendra Modi while
failures have to be dealt by the individual
minister. That way, blaming Harsh
Vardhan for the failure of our efficient
handling of the Covid 19 is not correct,
it is the PMO which is handling the situation
under the Prime Minister. Can
any one then blame the prime minister
and his babus for the failure in handling
the current crisis ? No, that is where
Harsh Vardhan remains important as he
will face the blame for the failure of the
things which he actually never did.
Supremo’s want such netas who can
easily give credit to their leaders when
they succeed and accept the blame
when they fail. Shailaja enjoyed the
laurels and media glare making the
chief minister a bit uncomfortable
while Harsh Vardhan remained completely
loyal to his leader. Even when
political manipulations will allow more
and more leaders to follow the path of
Harsh Vardhan and enjoy patronage, it
will really be sad and the death of
democracy if leaders like K K Shailaja
do not speak when needed. We know all
of them follow the party guidelines but
it is essential to speak where the party is
wrong. To make democracy successful
that respects merit and commitment,
the success of leaders like K K Shailaja
remains extremely important. Will it
happen ?
Vidya Bhushan Rawat is a social
and human rights activist. He blogs
at www.manukhsi.blogspot.com
twitter @freetohumanity
Email: vbrawat@gmail.com
Man Convicted for Caste
Hate Speech in UK
A man from west London receives a
16 week suspended prison sentence for
producing and sharing caste-related
hate video on social media.
Mr Gurvinder Singh Luthra’s hearing
took place on 25th May, 2021 at Highbury
Corner Magistrates Court. He pleaded
guilty to two counts of sending by public
c o m m u n i c a t i o n
offensive/indecent/obscene/menacing
materials. Mr Luthra was sentenced to 16
weeks in prison - suspended for 12 months.
He is also required to comply with a
Rehabilitation Activity Requirement, and
was ordered to pay £213 of court costs.
The videos Mr Luthra shared on TikTok
in 2020, were of himself having an aggressive
rant that included casteist, racist and
homophobic insults. There were also
threats of rape. In particular, he made
offensive and derogatory comments about
Guru Ravi Dass - a spiritual figure followed
by millions of Indians around the
world.
The Anti Caste Discrimination
Alliance (ACDA) has been campaigning
for caste discrimination to be outlawed
in Britain since 2008. ACDA was one of
the witnesses in this case. Ravi Kumar,
General Secretary of ACDA said:
“The 16-week prison suspended sentence
given to Gurvinder Singh Luthra
should signal to others that they cannot
make and share caste-related hate communications.
This sentence is woefully inadequate
in view of the sufferings regularly
being reported to us by those suffering
CBD in all walks of life in Britain. We are
grateful however, to Hounslow Police and
Crown Prosecution Service for taking this
case to court.
Hate speech laws in the UK are
designed to protect communities from such
abuse. The fact that Mr Luthra was able to
produce and post these offensive casterelated
videos on social media implies he
felt he could, and get away with it.
We understand the charge did not
specifically refer to ‘caste’ because caste is
not a protected characteristic in law. We
call on the Government to provide the legal
clarity required urgently, and implement
the law agreed by Parliament in 2013. This
would make caste discrimination and
caste-related hate crimes unlawful in this
country. Without such clarity, cases like
this will continue to take place under the
radar and not be recorded.
Social media giants –Facebook, Twitter
and YouTube have recognised Caste hate
speech as being unacceptable and say so
openly in their guidance. It is time for
TikTok to follow suit.”
Father of Jyoti Paswan, Bihar's
'Bicycle Girl', passes away
Patna : The father of Jyoti Paswan, who shot into limelight as
Bihar's 'Bicycle Girl', died on Monday.
Jyoti grabbed headlines when she rode a bicycle, carrying her
ill father Mohan Paswan, all the way from Gurugram to her native
village Sirhauli during the first wave of the Coronavirus pandemic.
Mohan had not been keeping well for the last few days.
However, it is not yet confirmed whether he died owing to Covid-
19. During last year's lockdown, when all transportation systems
were shut, Paswan decided to travel from Gurugram in Haryana to
Bihar on her bicycle.
She travelled close to 1,200 km in eight days to reach her village
in in Darbhanga district. Her father was severely ill at that
time as well. A large number of villagers assembled at the Paswan
residence and consoled Jyoti.

www.theasianindependent.co.uk
NEWS
01-06-2021 to 15-06-2021
19
Congress alleges
Rs 5 tn bank fraud
under BJP govt
New Delhi : The Congress on Monday alleged that
bank fraud to the tune of Rs 5 trillion, equal to Rs
4,98,677 crore, has been
committed during the NDA
government. The Congress
has accused the government
of weakening the banking
system.
Addressing a press conference
Gourav Vallabh asked
three questions from the government,
"Why has the government
failed to curb the
bank frauds in the last 7
years? What is the government
doing to recover the amount involved in these bank
frauds? How much amount has been collected from
these fraudsters who are weakening our banking system?"
He said the Modi government has weakened the
banking system by allowing the fraudsters to either continue
functioning in the country or leave the country
without making any efforts to recover the fraud
amounts. It has also not provided enough capital support
to the banks. The Congress party urged that the Modi
government should handle these fraudsters with an iron
fist and make sure that the entire amount, that belongs to
our nation, be recovered as soon as possible
"The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) released its Annual
Report for the year 2020-21. While it lays out the state
of the economy currently, it points out certain alarming
statistics. The failure of the Modi government in controlling
infections due to the second wave of COVID-19
is denting a heavy blow again to the economy," the
Congress said.
According to the RBI, "the March 2021 round of the
Reserve Bank's consumer confidence survey (CCS)
showed a worsening consumer sentiment on the back of
deteriorating sentiments on general economic situation,
income and prices," he said.
Israel’s attack on Palestine:
Imperialist Designs
Ram Puniyani
From 6th May 2021 while Hamas, a
radical Palestinian group has launched
missiles on Israelis on the issue related
to Al Aqsa mosque, the Israel has
launched close to a full scale attack on
Palestinians. In this conflict the causalities
and destruction has been more on
Palestinian side, death of nearly 200
people including 60 children, while on
Israeli side ten people including one
child have lost their lives. The destruction
of buildings housing media centres
in particular by Israel is a grave
and tragic event.
The perpetual Al Aqsa mosque
issue has been projected to be the
cause of these acts. The major issue of
installing Zionists and carving out
Israel as an outpost of America near
the oil rich zone of the World needs to
be understood. The creation of Israel
after the second World war, on the
ground that Jews need a country of
their own as they have been tormented
in different countries was the pretext in
which the US and Britain in particular
planned the area for the Jews in
Palestine. As such Israel is a case of
settler colonialism, military occupation
and land theft.
Palestine has been a country for
long. It is not only the Muslims who
have been the citizens of this country.
In addition to Muslims, Christians and
Jews have also been the part of the citizenry
of Palestine. The area carved
out for Jews, and linking it to historical
roots of origins of Judaism in this area
was the logic proffered for the same.
Jerusalem has been the centre of
importance for three Abrahmic religions,
Judaism, Christianity and Islam.
As such the first global meet of
Jews, lead by Zionists had taken place
in 1897 in Germany. They asked for a
separate state for Jews. Let’s first
understand the difference between
Zionism and Judaism. Judaism is a
religion of Jews, while Zionism is a
politics in the name of Judaism. This is
quiet akin to Islam as a religion and
Islamic Fundamentalism (Taliban for
e.g.) or Hinduism as a religion and
Hindutva as politics. While the meeting
passed the resolution for a separate
country for Jews, there was a great
opposition to this resolution from large
section of Jews scattered all over.
Their argument was that with such a
resolution the Jews will face discrimination
and Jewish traders will have to
face many problems in their professional
life.
The attempt for Jewish state got
another shot just before the World War
I. The German holocaust which targeted
Jews gave another shot in the arms
to the idea of separate state for Jews.
Many of the Jews from Germany itself
were opponents of this idea, as they
realized that such a state built around
the identity of one religion will
become as authoritarian and oppressive
to other identities as Germany
herself became with Nazis in power.
The formation of Israel took away
lots of territory of Palestine. And
Lakhs of Palestinians were forced to
leave their home and hearth. The
newly formed state was armed to the
teeth, particularly by America. The
idea was very clear that Western
Imperialist powers were keen to have a
place of strategic importance in West
Asia. More so when the politics of
control over oil resources began these
powers articulated that ‘oil is too precious
a commodity to be left to Arabs’.
On one hand the US-Britain had
designs to strengthen Israel on the
other the affluent Jews control many of
the power centres within America in
particular.
After 1967 attack by Israel, it
grabbed large tracts of Palestine. This
led to lakhs of Palestinians becoming
refugees in near by countries. The atrocious,
aggressive behaviour of Israel
was opposed by UN. Through various
resolutions UN had been calling for
giving justice to Palestinians and urging
Israel to withdraw from the areas
occupied illegally. Israel defied most
of UN resolution. Israel could get
away with violation of global and
human norms mainly because America
has been backing it thoroughly.
Religion has no role to play in this
dynamics. The real issue is the control
of oil resources and military-political
domination in the area. Recently UN
Security Council wanted to pass a resolution
calling for cease fire by both
sides. America with its veto power
blocked it and Israel’s defence minister
stated that the war will go on till they
achieve their goal.
Anti Israel demonstrations all over
the World are underway. There is a call
for a halt to the attack by Israel. There
TN education department prints
3.8 cr new school textbooks
Chennai : The Tamil Nadu Textbook
and Educational Services Corporation has
printed 3.8 crore new textbooks for school
students in Tamil Nadu for the academic
year 2021-22. This exercise was done
despite the long holidays and shutdown
owing to the Covid-19 pandemic and the
state Assembly elections.
The education department has ordered
4.1 crore textbooks, of which 3.8 crore
have already been printed and delivered.
This means that 91 per cent of the textbooks
have been printed and delivered to
the designated centres.
The Tamil Nadu Textbook Corporation
in a statement on Monday said the printing
of textbooks for classes 8 to 12 is complete
and for other classes a small percentage
remains to be printed. However, the
Corporation said the printing of books for
classes 1 and 2 is pending owing to the
lockdown. The books for classes 1 and 2
will be printed and delivered to the designated
centres only after the lockdown in
the state is lifted. An official with the
Textbook Corporation told IANS, "As this
was an election year, we commenced printing
in January itself and moved the printed
books to the 120 designated centres across
the state in March and April. With no major
corrections in the book, the printing work
began in advance."
The Textbook Corporation will also
deliver books to private schools who have
given orders for them but it will happen
only after the lockdown is lifted.
P.B. Prince Gajendra Babu, General
Secretary, State Platform for Common
School System, speaking to IANS said,
"The state government should take steps to
deliver books to the doorstep of the students
for the academic year 2021-22 in
view of the pandemic. The government
must initiate steps to deliver both textbooks
and notebooks to students in government
and private schools."
He said the teachers who are above 50
years and have comorbidities must be
given posting at the stationary centres
without any public contact.
is no justification for the shelling by
Hamas, but in such an oppressed and
tortured community few extremist
groups do come up and get nurtured
because of the extreme injustices
hurled on a particular community.
India has consistently taken a Pro
Palestine position all through. Starting
from Mahatma Gandhi who wrote,
“my sympathy for the Jews does not
blind me to the requirements of
Justice. It is wrong and inhuman to
impose the Jews on the Arabs’, down
till the leaders like Aral Bihari
Vajpayee and Sushma Swaraj who
took a pro Palestine position and criticised
the Israel’s occupation of
Palestinian land. Lately with the sectarian
nationalism growing in India,
Indian Government is tilting towards
Israel, and demand justice for
Palestinians is taking a back seat.
The area has been a hot spot from
last several decades. It is time that all
the global powers follow the resolutions
of United Nations and restore to
Palestinians their rightful land and
rights. We can’t ignore the rise of
Israel as a country also. Keeping in
mind the current realities; a solution
for demarcation between Palestine and
Israel by United Nations needs to be
done and adhered to. The gross violation
of human rights of Palestinians is
a matter of worry for all those looking
forward to a peaceful world order. For
this America-imperialists should be
made to overcome their ambitions of
controlling the lust for oil-power and
favour justice for all the people of
Middle East.
BJP trying to hide
Covid-management
failure, claims Sisodia
New Delhi : Delhi Deputy Chief Minister Manish
Sisodia on Monday said that the AAP-led Delhi government
is making all possible efforts to procure Covid
vaccines for every citizen
in the national capital.
Addressing a digital
press conference,
Sisodia hit out at the
Bharatiya Janata Party
(BJP) saying, "BJP is
trying to hide its failure
of Covid management
and for that they
are abusing Kejriwal
time and again. First,
they stopped Delhi's
oxygen supply, for that
we reached the court
and finally oxygen was supplied. And now, when
Kejriwal demands vaccines to administer these to all
Delhi's citizens before the third wave, BJP's leaders have
again started abusing Kejriwal," alleged Sisodia.
He further stated that no matter what BJP's leaders
say to Kejriwal or the AAP Government, the demand for
vaccines will continue till every person in Delhi is vaccinated.
Sisodia's remarks came a day after Haryana Chief
Minister Manohar Lal Khattar said the Delhi government's
decision to pause vaccination for the 18-44 age
groups and temporarily shut vaccine centres was just
drama. There has been a political war brewing between
the Delhi government ruled by AAP and the BJP on
shortage of vaccines, with AAP accusing the Centre of
exporting Indian-made vaccines.
On Sunday, BJP chief JP Nadda had hit out at
Kejriwal saying, "There are people who, in the name of
vaccines, broke India's morale, Delhi's morale.
In response to that, Kejriwal said on twitter, "My goal
is to save lives, not vaccines."

20 01-06-2021 to 15-06-2021 NEWS
www.theasianindependent.co.uk
Will IMA take the fight against Ramdev’s
irresponsible utterings to the court
Mr Ram Kishan Yadav or Ramdev is
a product of grand Hindutva package
that work through raising ‘cultural’
issues. He reached Indian houses and
outside through Yoga. As we wait for
miracles in India, Ramdev came as a
‘miracle’ man. All those who dont want
to put their bodies to trouble felt that
Ramdev’s miracles are boon for them.
The business started once he became a
brand. The powerful lobbies entered in
and his Patanjali started producing
‘Ayurvedic’ things. He was one of the
promoters of ‘India against corruption’
along with other Babas like Sri Sri
Ravishankar, who seems to have vanished
and ceded his space to another
spokesperson of Hindutva called
‘Satguru’ whose story of violating the
land law in Coimbatore has been
known to all. Ramdev’s empire at
Hardwar has also lots of ifs and buts but
Narendra Modi’s government was
extraordinarily soft towards him.
Patanjali was non profitable trust earning
huge profit through income tax
exemptions which is a difficult task for
other NGOs and organisations to get
these days. Slowly, he started entering
into our newsrooms by sponsoring programmes.
Today, Ramdev’s Patanjali is
sponsor of large number of news programmes
of all the major channels.
Ramdev fixed into RSS scheme of
things very well by raising false ‘sense’
of ‘pride’ and using the same narratives
as the Sangh Parivar has indulged in
terming all those who differ with them
as anti national. Nobody is questioning
when Ram Kishan Yadav teach Yoga to
people. It it good that we should learn it
and keep fit but the problem starts when
Ram Kishan Yadav venture in every
issue and make those comments which,
if made by any other person, would
have landed him/her in jail.
He launched Coronil product in the
presence of two Union Minister, Mr
Chandigarh : The Shiromani
Akali Dal (SAD) on Thursday
condemned the Central government
for trying to defame the
farmers' agitation as well as suppress
it by allegedly filing a
politically motivated
chargesheet accusing the farmers
of conspiring to turn the Red
Harsh Vardhan and Mr Nitin Gadkari,
claiming that the product is approved
by World Health Organisation. It was
absolutely shameful thing to have made
these claims in front of Union Health
Minister which was rejected by World
Health Organisation immediately. But
neither Union Health Minister Harsh
Vardhan nor Ram Kishan Yadav felt
apologetic about it. In any other country,
government would have faced serious
crisis of promoting such fake products
but then in India these fake ideas
are the ‘trump’ card of Sangh parivar.
Just a few days back Ram Kishan
Yadav made two absolutely insensitive
remarks which should have forced the
government to act against him. His first
remark was against the people who
were gasping for Oxygen. Ram Kishan
said that there is enough Oxygen in the
Centre tried to defame farmers with motivated
chargesheet, alleges AKALI DAL
Fort into a protest site on
January 26 this year.
In a statement here, former
minister Daljit Singh Cheema
said it was shocking that Delhi
Police had filed a chargesheet
accusing the farmers of trying to
capture the Red Fort on January
26 with the aim of turning it into
air and we need not worry about it. It is
useless for people dying of Oxygen. He
exact word are : Marte hain aise hi.
Arey, bhagwaan ne muft mein oxygen
de rakhi hai. (People say) oxygen ki
kami pad rahi hai…bhagwaan ne saara
bramhmand bhar rakha hai oxyegn
se…le toh le. Bahar cylinder dhoondh
rahe hain, tu apne bheetar 2 cylinder
laga rakhe hain…”cylinder kam pad
gaye”.
Ram Kishan Yadav is ‘promoting’
‘positivity’ as the government want him
to and that is why he has spread so
much hatred and negativity. There was
no reaction from BJP, RSS or government
of India though social media was
enraged at this cruel and barbaric
remarks.
Now Ram Kishan Yadav has made
much bigger and outrageous remark
a protest site.
He said this was furthest
from the truth. "It is a matter of
record that the entire established
leadership of the Kisan
Andolan as well as thousands
of protesters took a predetermined
route as finalised after
talks with Delhi Police. Only a
small section of people reached
the Red Fort." Cheema said it
was apparent that Delhi Police
had not done a professional
investigation into the entire
case. "The factual position on
the ground has not been taken
into consideration while framing
the chargesheet. In fact, it
seems to be motivated by politics."
The SAD leader asked the
Central government to take stock
of the situation immediately and
take corrective measures to
ensure no farmer was victimised
due to the partisan chargesheet
filed by the police.
By Vidya Bhushan Rawat
social and human rights activist
(Asian Independent)-
My name is Anya Soni
and I am 9 years old, I
have completed all the 11
levels of abacus this
month and I am very
happy about it (It took 3
and a half years!). Abacus
has helped me with my
speed and accuracy in
maths, it has also helped
me at maths in my class at
school. I am one of the
fastest to answer tricky
sums. I am still not sure
what I want to be when I
grow up (maybe a scientist) but I
am sure that maths definitely
will help me in my future career
and day to day life. I already
help my parents to calculate bills
in the supermarket or restaurants
when they need to pay. I also
help my mum to do a stock
check for her small business.
Completing all 11 levels of abacus
is one of my biggest achievements.
Other than abacus and
school I like and learn ballet, I
am also good at art. I have done
against the medical fraternity. He
mocked at the modern science and said
that so many thousands doctors have
died due to Corona Virus so when the
doctors are unable to ‘protect’ themselves
how will they protect others.’ He
claimed he was a bigger doctor.
Over 747 doctors have died till date
due to Covid 19. Thousands of health
workers worked day in and night to
protect us. Many of them died. Ram
Kishan Yadav mocked at them insensitively.
It is the same man who after a
few days of fast against ‘corruption’ in
2011, got unconscious and had to be
admitted to Swami Rama hospital in
Rishikesh. His chelas did not take him
to Patanjali hospital for his treatment.
A couple of days back, Patanjali’s
head of dairy business Sunil Bansal
passed away from Covid 19 complications.
He was being treated in a modern
hospital. It is another matter that
Patanjali’s Ayurvedic hospital is of no
use for their own leaders who speak
against modern medicines.
Ram Kishan Yadav has apologised
but look at the health minister of India
who behaved like a troll when wrote to
former Prime Minister Dr Man Mohan
Singh and here writing ‘polite’ letter to
a man who should be prosecuted for his
insensitive remarks as well as putting
lives of people in danger though his
diversionary tactics and irresponsible
behaviour.
Patanjali and Ram Kishan Yadav has
been the biggest propagandist of the
Hindutva and hence the government
will not take any action against him. He
will continue to lead, speak whatever he
wish and enjoy the full patronage. The
legitimacy granted to Ram Kishan
Yadav is a threat to our rationality and
critical inquiry. His utterings can create
atmosphere of mistrust against the
whole fight against Covid 19 for which
modern medical system is the only
answer and need to be protected.
Indian Medical Association has sent
a notice to Ram Kishan as well as to the
government of India but it seems that
the powerful ministers have rained in
and as the he has ‘withdrawn’ the statement,
it is time to think whether any
criminal can get away with such act.
Will IMA stop with such farcical ‘withdrawal’
of Ram Kishan ? Let us hope
the medical fraternity will speak up
against such foolish and dangerous
statement by these religious thugs who
have blessings of those in power. If
such people are not stopped from making
these kind of dangerous statement
they may put lives of people in serious
trouble. In the fight against Covid, we
will need to educate our people and
develop scientific thinking and spirit of
inquiry.
Anya Soni, 9, Success
story of Pandemic
multiple dance
and singing performances
on
stage, I have also
participated in a
couple of acts as
well. I am a good
and fast reader as
well. I climbed
my first munro
last month. Last
but not least
Abacus mental
arithmetic and
visualising abacus
tools supported
me a lot to maintain my brain
exercise during the pandemic. It
was a main cause of keeping me
mentally fit. I would like to
devote my mental health fitness
during pandemic to the abacus
mental arithmetic.

www.theasianindependent.co.uk
(Samaj Weekly)- On 26th May of
this year, Buddhists all over the world
celebrate Buddha Purnima by offering
prayer in Buddhist temples, homes
under the blessings of a learned
Buddhist monk; offering food to the
neediest people, helping the patients
with love and compassion especially
during the pandemic of Coronavirus &
sending donations to the countries that
needed it most. Buddha Purnima is celebrated
on account of three important
events of the Buddha`s life: his birth, his
attaining enlightenment, and his death,
Paranivana. This day is also known as
Thrice Blessed Festival.
The revival of Buddhism in India
was the most significant contribution of
Dr. B. R. Ambedkar. Owen M. Lynch
writes: “The Buddhist movement arisen
at the point where traditional Hindu
institutions and caste equality are tangent
to modern secular institutions and
democratic equality. At present, the
Indian socio-political system is a mixed
system containing elements of tradition
and modernity, caste, and class.
Buddhism functions to bridge the gap
between these two systems and to soften
the transition from one to the other. It
is religious and it is Indian … it is also
secular and egalitarian”.
Dr. B. R. Ambedkar attended many
world Buddhist conferences and met
Buddhist monks from various countries.
He also read vast literature on
Buddhism and finally decided to
embrace Buddhism on 14 October 1956
at a historic ceremony in Nagpur. In His
book “ The Buddha & His Dhamma”
Dr. B. R. Ambedkar observed, ‘Religion
is personal… contrary to this, Dhamma
is social’. Morality is the essence of
Dhamma; without it, there is no
Dhamma. He described Dhamma as
righteousness, right relations between
man and man in all spheres of life. one
man. Society cannot do without
Buddha
Purnima
2021
Dhamma i.e. right relations”. Dhamma
as a religion thus rejects belief in God,
belief in a soul, worship of God, curing
of the erring soul, propitiating god by
prayers, ceremonies, sacrifices, etc. In
sum, he regarded Buddha`s Dhamma as
true religion, the purpose of which was
to reconstruct the world by establishing
right relations with human beings’.
Brahmanism preached inequality, and
Buddhism preached equality, he wrote.
According to Dr. B. R. Ambedkar,
Buddhism gives three principles in
combination which no other religion
does. Buddhism teaches prajna (understanding)
as against superstition and
supernaturalism, Karuna (love), and
Samata(equality). For Ambedkar,
Panchsheel was an essential part of the
Buddhist religion.
The idea to convert to Buddhism by
Dr. B. R. Ambedkar was to remove
NEWS
untouchability. In his views, Buddha
rightly accepted the following three
points from Kapila’s theses, viz that
reality must rest on proof and must be
based on rationalism, that there was no
logical or factual basis for the assumption
that God existed and that he created
the world; and that there was misery in
the world. He rejected the whole system
of Brahmanical religion i.e. the infallibility
of the Vedas, transmigration, the
efficacy of rites, the moksha after the
cycle of births, and Isvara is the creator
of universe. He rejected the whole
Upanishadic thought as mere imagination.
Dr. B. R. Ambedkar found a solution
to the social and economic problems
in Buddha`s Dhamma!
In contemporary times, the followers
of Dr. B. R. Ambedkar has been making
strenuous efforts to revive Buddhism by
opening Buddhist Vihara, Bhikku training
centres, producing literature on
Buddhism etc. With a special reference
to Punjab, stalwart Lahori Ram Balley,
editor Bheem Patrika Publications, Prof.
Surendra Ajnat and Prof. G.C. Kaul
deserve a standing ovation who
laboured hard to produce books, pamphlets
in English, Punjabi, Hindi &
Urdu to educate the people of Punjab
about Buddhism. Without their hard
work, the revival of Buddhism after the
death of Dr. B. R. Ambedkar would
have not been possible in Punjab. Balley
always emphasized opening up training
centres for the laity who can go from
village to village to propagate
Buddhism. It is urged upon all those
who can afford comfortably must contribute
to the publication of the literature
on Buddhism in vernacular languages
because it is one of the rocksolid
ways to propagate Buddhism.
01-06-2021 to 15-06-2021
21
Many international Buddhist organizations/
individuals are wonderfully contributing
to revive Buddhism.
Albert Einstein, a Nobel Prize winner,
said, “Buddhism rejects blind faith,
dogma… Buddhist way scientific way!
Human mind, his happiness and peace
of mind is the core of Buddhism”. On
this Buddha Purnima, it becomes our
moral duty, irrespective of geographical
locations, to take a pledge to pass on the
religion of Buddhism to the coming
generations because the future generation
has only hope and solace in the
refuge of Buddhism. Let us not rest until
we make India a Buddhist country. Let
us also make “The Buddha and His
Dhamma” a mandatory book in every
house. This will be a great tribute to
Baba Saheb Dr. B. R. Ambedkar- our
beloved messiah, the world leader, the
constitutionalist, the social reformer, the
educationist.
Dr. Rahul Kumar Balley,
senior columnist, the Asian
Independent, UK-
Covid 19 Management and Scientific Temper
(Samaj Weekly)- With the outbreak
of Covid 19, one of the earliest claims
for its treatment came from Baba
Ramdev. Baba Ramdev is the leading
Baba who is also close to the ruling dispensation.
He began becoming popular
with his Yoga exercises and later took
up the manufacture of medicines etc.
including cow products. He has come to
stand in the row of leading Corporate of
the country. He learned his craft of Yoga
from his Guru. His colleague Acharya
Balkishan is the one who is his partner
in the Patanjail enterprise, which has
become a leading drug manufacturer.
Not much is known about the formal
education of the duo.
Their launch of Coronil, as a cure of
Corona drew lot of attention. There was
the claim initially that it has got WHO
approval, later the claim was diluted to
say that it has been made as per WHO
guidelines. A study was cited as the
proof of efficacy of the Coronil. The
claim was made that within seven days
the disease will be cured. Later the fallacy
of the study which was presented
as the basis of proving efficacy of
Coronil was demonstrated. Interestingly
two central minsters were present at the
launch.
Last one year has seen so many
claims coming up for treatment of the
dreaded pandemic. The Ayush ministry
advised the application of sesame
oil/coconut oil/cow ghee on the nostrils.
Some came up with the idea of steam
inhalation. Malegaon blast accused,
Bhopal BJP MP, Pragya Singh Thakur
claimed that consumption of Cow urine
is protecting her from Corona. BJP,
Madhya Pradesh Culture Minister Usha
Thakur claimed that performing of Fire
ritual; Havan; will protect us from the
disease.
Swami Chakrapani Maharaj organized
a Gomutra party for popularising
Cow-urine drinking and for applying
cow dung on the body. Similar practice
is being done by a group of Sadhus in
Gujarat. The peak of this was the statement
from the Chief Minister of
Uttrakhand who invited people for taking
bath in Mahakumbh with the plea
that divine powers of the river will protect
us from the calamity. The results
were right there to see as number of sadhus
lost their lives right during the
kumbh and later many sadhus carried
the disease to their respective places.
The overarching ideology behind
this of course filtered down from the
Prime minster himself, who first gave
the call of banging pots and pans for
five minutes at 5 PM and in April he
asked for burning candles and flashing
lights for 9 Minutes at Nine PM.
In a unique way another BJP worthy
one Sankeshwar in a recent press meet
stated that administration of lime juice
through nostrils increases oxygen levels
by 80%. This as per him was based on
– Ram Puniyani
observation of nearly 200 friends and
relatives.
The whole trend has been to make
statements and adopt politics, which do
not have any scientific base. The science
has tried to evolve method to
search for truth through the elaborate
methods. What we saw all through this
period has been the statements and
actions which are based on faith or common
sense. Cow which is a political
symbol for the ruling dispensation has
been employed extensively for treatment,
its urine; its dung have been the
major advices. The veterinary science
will tell us that Urine/dung is the waste
products of the body and there is no evidence
of any benefit of these to human
body.
The faith that 33 Crore Gods reside
in her body is a matter of faith, which is
being popularized and being forced on
the policies of this ruling dispensation.
The fire ritual of Yagna and ablation
(Ahuti) is again being proffered out of
the hat. The volunteers of the BJP’s parent
organization are doing extensive
propagation of the methods of doing
Havan at places.
Along with this Baba Ramdev, who
is among the major Godmen of last two
decades, went on to say that Allopathic
system of medicine is stupid and bankrupt
science. In response the Indian
Medical Association lodged protest. The
health Minster, wrote to Ramdev who in
turn has withdrawn his statement. This
is the same Ramdev who was in ICU
after his few days of fasting. This is
same Ramdev, whose partner Balkishan
was recently admitted to some allopathic
hospital.
The rise of such faith based irrational
statements and policies during last few
decades are running parallel to the rise
of sectarian politics, Hindutva. As such
the religious nationalism wants to harp
on the pre democratic values of caste
and gender hierarchy. The major step in
dawn of democratic society was the
struggle for reason to come up against
the prevalent blind beliefs, blind faith.
With democratization of Western societies
the faith/blind faith, such irrational,
retrograde practices are seen less
often there, if at all.
Here the rise of national movement,
the rise of social reform among women
and dalits also saw the firming up of the
scientific thinking. While the freedom
movement ran parallel to introduction
of rational though in society, those
believing in religious nationalism were
not only opposed to social reforms, anti
colonial struggle but also were against
the scientific thinking. They harped on
faith as it gives legitimacy to inequality
in society.
Our Constitution wants the state to
promote scientific temper as a matter of
policy. As we have seen with the rise of
divisive nationalism we have seen an
all-out attack on rational thinking. We
saw the murders of Dr. Dabholkar, Com
Pansare, M. M. Kalburgi and Gauri
Lankesh. The tragedy of pandemic has
seen the revival of blind faith as the ruling
dispensation’s whole ideology is
founded on faith/blind faith. This is an
obstacle to efficiently dealing with the
pandemic. While the likes of Ramdev
are on the top of pyramid of faith based
knowledge, there are hoards of others
promoting these things all around. We
do need to promote scientific temper
and the spectacles of banging pans or
lighting lamps are not going to solve the
tragic situation in which we are writhing
at present.

22 01-06-2021 to 15-06-2021 NEWS
www.theasianindependent.co.uk
UK in early stages of third
Covid wave: Scientist
London : The UK is in the early
stages of a third wave of Covid-19, a
scientist advising the UK government
said, media reports said on Monday.
The B1617 variant, which was first
detected in India in October 2020, had
fuelled "exponential growth" and is
responsible for at least three-quarters
of cases in the UK, Ravi Gupta, a professor
at the University of Cambridge,
was quoted as saying by the BBC.
"Of course the number of cases is
relatively low at the moment -- all
waves start with low numbers of cases
that grumble in the background and
then become explosive, so the key
here is that what we are seeing here is
the signs of an early wave," Gupta
told BBC Radio 4's Today programme.
However, he said the number of
people who have been vaccinated in
the UK meant this wave would probably
take longer to emerge than the
previous ones.
"There may be a false sense of
security for some time, and that's our
concern," he noted, suggesting that
ending Covid restrictions in the UK
on June 21 should be postponed.
It should be delayed "by a few
weeks while we gather more intelligence",
said Gupta, a member of the
UK government's New and Emerging
Respiratory Virus Threats Advisory
Group (Nervtag).
The concern was echoed by other
experts who said that the B1617 variant
could "pick up speed and become
a big problem" in the UK as the country
further eases lockdown measures.
The UK's fight against coronavirus
could turn bad "very, very quickly"
unless the government acts cautiously
on easing lockdown further, Xinhua
news agency quoted Tim Gowers
from the University of Cambridge
telling the Guardian on Saturday.
Anthony Harnden, the deputy chair
of the UK's Joint Committee on
Vaccination and Immunisation
(JCVI), also warned that the
B1617 variant is "clearly more
transmissible".
"We need to be reassured that
we're in a very different position
now in that we've got a highly
vaccinated population and we just
need to continue moving at
speed," he told the BBC on
Saturday. "We do know that with
this particular variant, you do
need two doses to offer complete protection,
and so we're very, very keen
to make sure that all those, particularly
higher risk groups, over 50 years of
age and those with underlying illness,
receive their second vaccination as
soon as feasible," Harnden said.
The final stage of the government's
roadmap for lifting lockdown, which
would remove all limits on how many
people you can meet - either indoors
or outdoors, is due no earlier than
June 21.
On Sunday, the UK reported more
than 3,000 new Covid infections for a
fifth day in a row. Prior to this, the UK
had not surpassed that number since
April 12, the BBC report said.
Cong panel on Punjab meets
MLAs to find common
GROUND FOR TRUCE
New Delhi : A Congress
panel met ministers and MLAs
in New Delhi to find out a common
ground to end factionalism
in Punjab with the state
going to the polls next year.
The panel will meet Navjot
Singh Sidhu and Chief Minister
Amarinder Singh also.
In the Monday meet
Congress state president Sunil
Jakhar met the committee constituted
by party president
Sonia Gandhi comprising of
Mallikarjun Kharge, JP
Aggarwal and General
Secretary In charge of the state
Harish Rawat.
Apart from Sunil Jakhar,
ministers in the Punjab government,
Sunder Sham Arora,
Charanjit Channi, Aruna
Chowdhry, Brahm Mohindra,
OP Soni, Manpreet Badal, Tript
Bajwa, Rana Sodhi and
Sukhjinder Randhawa also met
the committee.
The committee will continue
its consultations till
Wednesday. Navjot Singh
Sidhu is likely to meet the
members on Tuesday. Sources
indicated that there is no talk of
replacing the Chief Minister,
only rehabilitation of the
important leaders.
Sidhu wants his rehabilitation
either in the government or
the party. He has been attacking
the Chief Minister, saying that
he is waiting as the high command
has intervened. Sidhu
dared the chief minister to
prove his allegations of his
joining another party.
However, the All India
Congress Committee (AICC)
will not take the risk of replacing
the Chief Minister as there
is nobody of his stature to face
the Akali Dal specially the
Badal family. The Congress
will have to devise a middle
path as 20 MLAs are reported
to be unhappy with the
Amarinder Singh's style of
functioning.
Sources said the committee
will perform a balancing act
between the two factions.
Sidhu and one non Sikh leader
may be appointed as Deputy
Chief Ministers. The committee
is expected to submit its
report this week itself.
Ram Awla, Gurkirat Singh,
Rana Gurjeet Singh, Arun
Dogra, Raj Kumar Chabbewal,
Rana KP and Rakesh Pandey
also met the panel.
Most of the MLAs complained
about arbitrary actions
by the CM but the key concern
was the government's inability
to bring to book the culprits in
the desecration of Guru Granth
Sahib and police firing during
peaceful protests in 2015,
which was in the party election
manifesto.
J&K police recover huge quantity
of EXPLOSIVE MATERIALS
Srinagar : The J&K police
along with the security forces
have recovered huge quantity
of explosive materials and
ammunition in three separate
operations, officials said on
Monday.
After receiving a tip-off
regarding an IED planted by
the terrorists alongside a link
road leading from Railway-
Dogripora to Panzgam village
in Awantipora in Pulwama district,
a joint team of Awantipora
police, the army and the CRPF
cordoned off the area, the
police said.
"During search, a container
of approximately 10-litre
capacity containing IED was
detected. The IED was defused
on the spot, thus averting a
major tragedy," the police said.
In a second operation based
on a specific input, the
Awantipora police along with
the army and the CRPF conducted
a search operation near
the Simoah Nallah in Tral.
The police said that during
the search operation, a plastic
container of approximately 50-
60-litre capacity containing
IED materials was recovered
after digging the suspected
spot.
The police said the cache of
explosive materials recovered
included around 40-50 kg gun
powder (Ammonium powder),
two electric detonators, cordex
wire and electric command
wire.
In yet another operation
based on a specific tip-off, a
cordon and search operation
was launched in the forest area
of Shajinar by the Ganderbal
police, the army and the CRPF.
"During intensive search of
the area, a cavity was found to
have been dug in the ground
from which plastic cans containing
11 AK series magazines,
AK series live ammunition
(7.62A-39 mm) 597
rounds, 12 UBGL rounds, 1
pistol magazine and6 rounds of
pistol ammunition were recovered,"
the police said.

www.theasianindependent.co.uk
NEWS
01-06-2021 to 15-06-2021
23
Now he wants to set a world record that
no one can break but at the same time…
CANADA (Samaj Weekly)-
always made to be broken. In addition,
Basketball is the most popular sports in
the world today. Many players from all
over the world have made a name for
themselves by playing in famous
leagues like NBA in USA. Have you
ever wondered if a person can become
famous all over the world by playing
basketball? Today we are talking about
one such person, Sandeep Singh Kaila,
who is famous all over the world today
for his unique gift of God-given basketball.
Sandeep, a resident of Badduwal
village near Dharamkot in Moga district,
has lifted the head of Punjabis all
over the world by breaking basketball
and setting three Guinness World
Records and one Limca record. He spins
a basketball in such a way that the viewer
is stunned. So far, he has broken the
world records of legendary players from
USA, England, Germany, Hungary,
Limca book of records. He has now
broken record of longest time spinning
three basketball is 20:98 seconds on 20
January 2021. The previous record was
17:80 second attempted by Diego Soto
in Mexico City. Now he has broken his
own record and applied for new GWR.
Punjab (India) and Canada in this way.
Sandeep was born in the house of
Mukhtiar Singh. Sandeep Singh started
participating in sports from his childhood.
He started playing volleyball
shooting in 2004 and has been playing
ball ever since, but at that time he knew
basketballs at the same time as
Thansevar Gurgai’s 19 seconds and
entered the Limca Book of Records.
Then Kunal Singal of India broke his
record of 53 seconds to 55:80 seconds
and then Kunal Singal broke the record
of 55:80 seconds to 55:90 seconds by
he wants to set 4 more records in basketball
spinning.
Now Sandeep can do 16 different
skills with basketball. Like a blindfold,
he turns his basketball around. Today he
lives in Brampton, Canada. He is showing
the essence of his art in sports competitions
in Canada and USA. Apart
from this, he has proved his mettle in
many major countries of the world. At
the same time, Sandeep is playing volleyball
shooting tournaments in Canada
and USA for Brampton and has won
many tournaments. Sandeep has told the
whole world where Baduwal village is
and he has put Baduwal village on the
world map. , District Moga and its beautiful
country Punjab.
He always stays away from drugs.
He has always used social media properly.
He has his own channel on
Nepal, Mexico and India. Now he is He has broken his own record with that his art would make him famous all Istvan Casapo of Germany but now YouTube named Sandeep Singh
breaking his own records. He performs
16 different acts with basketball. He
also spins four basketballs simultaneously.
Let’s talk about the records Sandeep
set for him by holding this worldfamous
22:00 seconds His goal is to set 10
world records. He says records are
always made to be broken but still he
wants to set a world record that no one
can break for which his hard work continues
today. He is currently living in
over the world.
He first broke David Kane’s record
of 33 seconds at 45 at the age of 25 in
2016. He broke the record with volleyball
but the Guinness World Records did
not approved his record it because they
Sandeep has come to Canada. And on
the 25th of December, when the whole
world was celebrating Christmas, he
broke the record of 55:80 seconds and
made it 60:50, that is, one minute and
fifty milliseconds and Guinness World
Basketball. If anyone wants to watch his
video, he can do so. In addition, he has
published about 100 articles in newspapers
and has given interviews to 11
international TV channels. He has also
made a documentary film on it. At such
toothbrush in his mouth and Brampton, Canada, and is playing vol-
Records. He made his name in the Red a young age, some of these things hap-
spinning a basketball on it for 53 seconds
leyball shooting tournaments in Canada Harjinder PAL Chhabra Book for the second time and Sandeep pen to someone. He is always thanking
in Punjab on April 8, 2017, 60:50 and the United States. He is now an Mob.: 9592282333 Singh Kaila became the first person in God for all this.
seconds in Canada on December 25, American Got Talent. , Britain wants to
the world to do so. Before that no one His record of longest duration spinning
2017 and 1 minute 8 second and 15 milliseconds
showcase the essence of Got Talent and had not a volleyball shooting. He then had spent a minute in basketball. Earlier
basketball on toothbrush is 1:
on Canadian soil on January NBA Half Time. The village of started spinning basketball in July 2016 this record was broken 9 times and now 08.15 seconds and longest time spin-
1, 2019. Now he has broken his own
record and tried 1 minute 13 seconds
and 90 milliseconds on 2021 in Canada.
He also set a record of spinning three
basketballs simultaneously in 19 seconds
in Punjab on 26 February 2017 for
Baduwal is proud of Sandeep and his
art. If anyone wants to watch his video,
you can do so by visiting his personal
channel Sandeep Singh Basketball on
YouTube. We hope this young man from
Punjab continues to shine the name of
and on April 8, 2017, he broke the
Guinness World Record for spinning
basketball on a toothbrush of India’s
Dipanshu Mishra at 42:92 seconds and
53 seconds. He then broke Nepal’s 11-
second national record of spinning three
Sandeep has broken it 10 times. This is
the 11th time he has broken his own
record and applied for Guinness for
73:90 seconds. Now he wants to set a
world record that no one can break but
at the same time he says that records are
ning three basketballs is 20:98 seconds
are still stand. Now he wants to set a
world record that no one can break but
at the same time he says that records are
always made to be broken. Wishing him
a bright future.
Russia starts vaccinating
animals against Covid-19
London : Russia has started
vaccinating animals against
Covid-19, the media reported on
Thursday. Several regions in the
country have now started the
Carnivak-Cov vaccines at veterinary
clinics, the BBC quoted
Russia's veterinary watchdog
Rosselkhoznadzor as saying to
local media. A Carnivak-Cov jab
provides immunity for an estimated
six months. The vaccine
was earlier tested on dogs, cats,
mink, foxes and other animals
and was proven to be effective,
Rosselkhoznadzor had said.
Clinics are seeing an increase in
vaccination requests from
"breeders, pet-owners who travel
frequently and also citizens
whose animals roam freely",
Julia Melano, adviser to the head
of Rosselkhoznadzor, was quoted
as saying. Earlier this month,
Russia had announced that it had
started mass production of
Carnivac-Cov. The first batch of
17,000 doses has been produced
at Rosselkhoznadzor's subordinate
institution, the Federal
Centre for Animal Health, the
watchdog said in a statement,
Xinhua reported. There is great
domestic demand for the vaccine
and the first batch of doses will
be distributed within the country,
it said, adding that foreign companies
have also shown interest
in it. The production capacity is
3 million doses per month now
and will hopefully increase to 5
million in the near future, local
media reported, citing an adviser
to the head of Rosselkhoznadzor.
Russia is also negotiating for
the fast registration of the vaccine
abroad, particularly in the
European
Union.
Rosselkhoznadzor had on March
31 announced that the country
had registered the Carnivac-Cov
vaccine. Other countries including
Argentina, South Korea and
Japan and even the EU have
shown interest in the Carnivak-
Cov vaccine, the agency said.
While currently there is no
evidence that animals play a significant
role in spreading the disease
to humans, infections have
been confirmed in various
species worldwide on -- dogs,
cats, apes and mink, the BBC
report said. Covid-19 has been a
serious problem for minks, semiaquatic
mammals farmed for
their fur. Multiple countries have
reported infections in farmed
mink which, in some cases, have
fallen severely ill or died. The
US veterinary pharmaceutical
company Zoetis is also developing
a vaccine for animals.
France to impose self-quarantine
for TRAVELLERS from UK
Paris : Travellers arriving in
France from the UK will be subject
to compulsory self-quarantine
due to the spread of the virus
variant first detected in India,
government spokesman Gabriel
Attal announced here.
Details on the new measure
will be unveiled later, Xinhua
news agency quoted Attal as saying
at a news briefing here on
Wednesday after a cabinet meeting.
Since April, France has
ordered strict 10-day quarantine
for all arrivals from 16 countries
including Chile, South Africa,
Brazil, Argentina, India, Turkey
and some Gulf countries, where
the new Covid variants are
active. Travellers from the highrisk
countries are required to
present a negative polymerase
chain reaction (PCR) test taken
less than 36 hours before boarding.
In France, the circulation of
new strains was stabilising, Attal
said, adding that "the sanitary
situation continues to improve
significantly".
The number of new Covid-19
cases in France fell by 15 per
cent in a week and less than
20,000 patients were receiving
treatment in hospitals, down by
2,600 from last week, reaching
the lowest level since late
October 2020, he added.
The number of critically ill
patients in intensive care, a key
indicator to evaluate the health
system's ability to cope with sanitary
crisis, fell for the third
straight week to 3,447, down
from around 6,000 at the end of
April. France has so far reported
a total of 5,683,143 coronavirus
cases and 109,185 deaths.

24 01-06-2021 to 15-06-2021 NEWS
www.theasianindependent.co.uk
CPI concerned over
Centre-state conflicts
Lucknow : The
Anjaan said
Communist Party of India
farmers have
(CPI) has expressed concern
over increasing cases
been agitating
since the past
of conflict between the
six months
Centre and states.
against the
CPI national secretary
Atul Kumar Anjaan said
that the conflict could
trigger a constitutional
three farm laws
passed by the
Central government.
crisis in the country.
"The three
Talking to IANS here,
farm laws were
Anjaan said, "The
passed by the
Constitution clearly
Central government
defines the relationship
without
between the Union government
and states. In the
last 70 years, there has
taking states in
confidence.
This is also a
been several occasions
direct threat to
when a conflict of interest arose secretary is retiring on May 31, the federal system," he said.
between the Centre and states, but the Centre has extended his The CPI secretary said that
but the Centre never interfered services by three months has efforts should be made to
in the concurrent list under asked him to come to centre on strengthen the Constitution
states' jurisdiction. However, in deputation.
instead of weakening the federal
structure. Anjaan asked
the seven-years' rule of the "If the Centre abuses its
present government, this rule is rights to weaken states, it Prime Minister Narendra Modi
being violated." Referring to would be considered as an to convene a special meeting of
the case of West Bengal chief attack on federal structure," he chief ministers to strengthen
secretary, he said that the chief added. On the farmers' issue, the centre-state relations.
'Photos of BJP leaders
should also adorn
DEATH CERTIFICATES'
Panaji : If the ruling BJP is
using photos of its prominent
leaders on banners strung outside
Covid vaccination centres,
similar photos should also be
used on death certificates of
persons who have succumbed
to the virus, Goa Congress
spokesperson Amarnath
Panjikar said on Monday.
The spokesperson's comment,
which has now gone viral
on Twitter, came after Leader
of Opposition Digmabar Kamat
protested against banners featuring
photos of state Bharatiya
Janata Party president
Sadanand Shet Tanavade and
BJP national president J.P.
Nadda, outside Covid vaccination
centres.
"I urge @goacm
@DrPramodPSawant &
@BJP4Goa @ShetSadanand to
write to @PMOIndia @narendramodi
A& @BJP4India
@JPNadda & demand that photos
of BJP Functionaries must
be displayed at every
Crematorium & Burial
AGrounds as well as on Death
Certificates of all those who
succumb to #COVID,"
Panjikar tweeted.
Earlier, Kamat, a former
Chief Minister, had urged the
district administration to crackdown
on such posters.
"Publicity hungry
@BJP4Goa displays banners
with photos of A@BJP4India
functionaries & lotus symbol at
#Covid Vaccination Centre at
Adarsh High School, Margao.
This is @GovtofGoa programme
& political parties
have no right to claim credit for
the same. @Coll_SouthGoa
must act".
Continue Page 13
BJP-RSS Politics and Economic
Plight of Dalits in India
A report UCAN News (18) points out
this sense of being let down and it is
expected that this rising anger among
the community will get reflected in 2024
elections. Now by and by this marginalized
community is not taking the promises
of BJP seriously. Young Dalits are
increasingly aware of their rights as citizens.
As per one of them “In the past, we
were nothing but cannon fodder for both
the opposition and ruling parties. The
time has come when such exploitation
will not be allowed,” (18)
As per the same report another Dalit
activist in the northern state of Punjab,
told ucanews.com that the present generation
of Dalits has learned from the
past. “The ongoing agitation wants to
send a message across the Dalit people
… to break the trap and demand equal
rights in society,”.
Emerging dalit leader with great
promise Jignesh Mevani, from Gujarat,
who is the new face of Dalit political
assertiveness; holds meetings, seminars
and awareness camps that attract huge
crowds of people. He outlines the clear
path for advance of dalits in the current
despicable situation. In one of the meeting
held in Ahmadabad city Mevani
criticized the BJP government of disregarding
the interests of Dalit people. He
called for more nationwide resistance
protests as the BJP government is failing
to defend the Dalit protection law in
the Supreme Court. There are hopes as
“Young people are now confronting the
government with facts and figures, a
trend alien to the community in the past.
A new revolution is in the making and
the time is not far away when the community
will no longer be viewed as
taboo or alien to mainstream society,”
(18)
Summing up
BJP’s rise on political firmament has
been a big setback to values of democracy,
freedom of expression, security of
religious minorities and dalits. It has
also adversely affected the economic
welfare of the marginalized sections of
society. Through various measures the
affirmative action meant for dalits are
gradually being undone. In addition to
raising of issues like Cow-beef have
affected the livelihood of this section of
society. Parallel to this BJP and its associates
have unleashed the process of
cooption of dalits into HIndutva fold.
Sections of dalits are able to see the
agenda of Brahmanic agenda of BJP-
RSS and do plan to oppose it through
various measures. The awareness
among dalit youth in particular is coming
up to resist the BJP moves to undermine
their social and economic status.
Continue Page 15
How Punjab’s Dalit Labourers Are
Trapped to Live a Bonded Life
All I know is that my employer was
using my bank account, my cheque
book and my ATM too. They had
deposited money many times in my
account and withdrew it later,” said
Nikka Singh. “I am illiterate and had
no idea of how loan liability was
raised against me. I am sure the case
was slapped against me because I left
his job,” he says. Father of two sons,
he adds the court hearing is in August
and he is in a lot of tension.
“I barely feed my family by doing
odd labour jobs,” he adds.
This is not the lone case.
Sukhpal Singh aka Palla Singh of
village Rala in Mansa’s Budhlada subdivision,
needed money to marry off
his two daughters.
A father of four daughters and one
son, this compelled him to engage
with village zamindar for a full one
year for Rs 75,000. He says that there
was no time limit in his contract. He
was ought to do field work all day and
night as needed.
Palla says his employer had 20
acres of land and he was the only
labourer looking after his vast land
and had a lot of field work.
During crop season, he even had to
wake up at night to water the fields or
look after the standing crop. The harvesting
was even more time consuming.
Then he too had to grow cattle
fodder and make it ready, he adds.
“My wife as well as kids too did
their house chores under the same
wages even though I was promised
additional money for their labour,”
says Palla. He says, “I worked for
them for nine months but one day, I
got my ribs badly injured while injecting
one of their cattle. This made me
bed-ridden but I was constantly
harassed by my employers to come
back to work.”
“My son, 16, started working in my
place but they were not satisfied with
his work. When their harassment continued,
I left for Mumbai where I
stayed with my kin until I fully recovered.”
He adds, “But in my absence,
my family was harassed. To my surprise,
my employer slapped a case
against my family that I borrowed Rs
2.55 lakh loan from them and did not
return it on time.” Farm labourer Palla
Singh with his family. Photo: Vivek
Gupta
Palla’s wife Jaswinder Kaur says
that “in the last court hearing, we
pleaded before the judge that we did
not borrow any loan from them, rather
it was a dispute arising out of my husband’s
labour engagement. The matter
is still pending but there is a constant
tension,” she adds.
Palla said that what his employer
did was that they obtained a plane
cheque from his wife with her signature
on it and then got it dishonoured
with Rs 2.55 lakh. They later filed a
court case under the Negotiable
Instrument Act.
Jagseer Singh, who is secretary of
non-government organisation (NGO),
volunteer for Social Justice that is giving
legal aid to Palla and his family,
says that it has become quite a common
practice to slap false court cases
against labourers after contractual disputes.
“An employer does not want to
lose his labourer since it is a cheaper
arrangement. When he refuses to work
with him and leaves his work, coercive
methods are then put into play to
pressurise him or as an act of vendetta,”
says Jagseer. In April this year,
Jagseer got a fresh case from village
Rampur Mander where a poor landless
labourer Bawa Singh got a legal notice
from his employer about a year after
he left his work due to dispute over
timely payment of wages.
Bawa says that he was promised Rs
90,000 per year of labour by a landed
peasant of his village. “I just took Rs
30,000 as an advance. After a year and
half of work, when I asked him to pay
my pending labour wages, he kept lingering
on.” “I later left the job last
year when I was not paid my wages. In
April, I was sent a legal notice by my
employer claiming that I borrowed
money from him and did not pay it. It
is pure harassment. I am the one who
was not paid,” said Bawa Singh.
Jagseer, who is providing legal aid
to Bawa, says that in Bawa’s case, his
employer made him sign a paper after
he hired him. Later he used it to raise
a ProNote or a promissory note and
claim that Bawa had taken Rs 1 lakh
loan from him and did not pay him on
time.
“We recently submitted a reply on
Bawa’s behalf in response to his
employer’s legal notice, making it
clear that it is a labour contractual dispute,
not the case of loan default as it
is claimed. We take it to a logical conclusion,”
he added.
Land reforms and debt waiver
needed
As per Punjab Khet Mazdoor
Union’s 2017 survey report, the entire
debt of the agricultural workers, landless
peasants and those who are unable
to pay their debt be waived immediately
as these debts have increased due
to the discriminatory, blameworthy
and blood sucking debt policies and
practices. The present Congress government
in Punjab promised relief to
the landless peasantry but the benefit
of the debt relief is yet to reach them.
The survey also calls for the pressing
need for radical land reforms to
solve the problem of debt of the agricultural
workers. The deficiency of
land among the farm labour as well as
the poor landless peasants should be
fulfilled by distributing among them
the surplus land above the present land
ceiling (17.5 acres) and the Benami,
barren and useless land by making it
cultivable. As per the report, appropriate
steps should also be taken to establish
agro-based and employment generating
industries so that work can be
provided to the labour power in the
agrarian sector. But the report has also
summarised that the above mentioned
policy-oriented suggestions to make
the agricultural workers and landless
peasants free of all their debts and to
bring happiness in their lives cannot
be expected to be fulfilled by the governments
which are the representatives
of the landlords, moneylenders
and big industrialists, and lackeys of
imperialism and anti-people political
parties. For this the need is to march
forward on this path by organising a
broad and united movement of agricultural
workers and landless peasants
and also taking along with it other
working people tormented by the present
governmental policies.
Courtesy : The WIre

www.theasianindependent.co.uk
Thiruvananthapuram : The
Kerala Assembly on Monday passed
a unanimous resolution asking the
Centre to see that the traditions and
culture of Lakshadweep island inhabitants
are protected and immediately
withdraw the island administrator
Praful Patel, who has tried to implement
new laws, that could destroy the
peace and tranquillity there.
Moving the resolution Chief
Minister Pinarayi Vijayan
pointed out that the administrator
is trying to implement the
saffron agenda on the island.
"The stage is such that even
the coconut trees are being
painted saffron and the corporatisation
of the island is being
implemented by the administrator,
who is out to destroy the
traditions and culture of the
island," said Vijayan.
"The islanders are known for
their peaceful nature and to terrorise
them, the administrator
has come out with a Goonda Act and
this has been introduced to see that if
any protest breaks out in the island,
then this can be used. Then the
administrator is trying to come out
with a beef ban through the back door
and the administrator is trying to
close down all dairy farms," said
Vijayan.
"All the powers vested with the
NEWS
Kerala Assembly passes unanimous
resolution to withdraw
LAKSHADWEEP administrator
'You must smell the coffee,' SC asks tough
questions from Centre over vaccine policy
New Delhi : A three-judge bench of the
Supreme Court on Monday remarked,
"You must smell the coffee", as it grilled
the Centre over its vaccine policy and
emphasised that the policy to fight back the
deadly virus should be aligned with the
ground situation in the country.
A bench comprising Justices D.Y.
Chandrachud, L. Nageswara Rao and S.
Ravindra Bhat told Solicitor General
Tushar Mehta, representing
the Centre, "You must
smell the coffee and see
what is happening across
the country", and stressed
that Centre's vaccination
policy should not be
carved in stone, rather it
should evolve based on the ground situation.
The bench suggested that the Centre
must know the ground situation and change
its policy accordingly. "If we had to do it,
we would have done it 15-20 days back. If
we had to do, we would have done so 15
days ago. But we want you to smell the
coffee and realise what is happening in the
country and make the necessary amendments.",
said the bench. The bench emphasised
that the vaccination not reaching the
rural population and indicated that 75 per
cent vaccination is being done in urban
areas. "With shortage there is no chance of
vaccine going in rural areas," the bench
noted.
Justice Chandrachud noted that private
hospitals, procuring the vaccines, are not
serving the core rural areas, therefore the
Centre is merely addressing urban areas.
"The policy today does not include vaccination
in rural areas, it is a matter of concern,"
noted the bench. Justice
Chandrachud emphasised the policy cannot
be ad-hoc day-to-day response, instead
there should a plan based on science. "We
want the policy to be amended..need
enforceable policies for the country. You
have to have a policy to deal with these
issues. If a new issue comes up then policy
has to address it", said the bench.
Citing technical glitches on CoWIN
application used for registration for vaccinations,
Justice Bhat said
he had received distress
calls from all over the
country, and added that
young people, who had
registered for vaccination,
visit private hospitals,
only to find all slots
are booked. Making it clear that its suggestion
on vaccine policy should be taken in
the right stride, the bench said "We are not
going to run central govt and make policies
for you." On the aspect of vaccine policy,
Justice Chandrachud told Mehta that the
ability to recognise that 'I am wrong' is not
a sign of weakness, but that of strength.
He added that this is a platform for dialogue
across the spectrum. "The idea is not
to criticise, but to strengthen the arms of
the government..The fact that MEA went
abroad, had dialogue shows the seriousness
of the situation", said Justice Chandrachud.
During the top court's suo motu hearing
on Covid-19 crisis management in the
country, the Centre informed the top court
that it is confident of vaccinating all eligible
persons over 18 years, by the year end.
Mehta submitted the production from
domestic vaccine producers will be enough
to vaccinate all who are over 18 years of
age.
local village councils are being slowly
taken away and through this the
administrator is trying to get full control.
And the most surprising guideline
also has now come which states
that none who have more than two
children can contest the village council
polls. The island has long standing
links with Kerala and includes educational
institutions there which follow
the Malayalam and English streams,
moreover the Kerala high court at
Kochi also is their judicial body," said
Vijayan and asked the assembly to
help pass the resolution unanimously.
Leader of Opposition V.D.
Satheesan said the entire opposition
fully agrees with the resolution and
the new rules that are being implemented
will completely destroy the
basic rights of the island people and
under no circumstances should this
take place.
"The draconian laws that are going
to be implemented there should be
thrown into the Arabian Sea and the
implementation of the Goonda Act in
a place where the crime rate is negligible
also should not take
place as it's meant to terrorise
the peace loving people
there," said Satheesan.
Senior Indian Union
Muslim League legislator
P.K. Kunhalikutty said yesterday
it was Kashmir,
today it's the island and
tomorrow it would be
Kerala.
"This is a calculated
move to do this at all places
where the Sangh Parivar
agenda just cannot come
through. All know Kerala is
not in the good books of the
Sangh Parivar and at no cost will we
allow this to happen in the island,"
said Kunhalikutty.
At the end of the speeches from
various leaders, the resolution was
passed unanimously and it was decided
to send it to the President for consideration
as it is he who is the
appointing authority of the administrator.
01-06-2021 to 15-06-2021
25
Delhi has 944 cases of black fungus,
facing shortage of drugs: Kejriwal
New Delhi : Delhi Chief minister
Arvind Kejriwal on Monday said there
is a severe shortage of the medicines
needed to treat at least 944 people
undergoing treatment for mucormycosis
or black fungus in Delhi's hospitals.
There may have been a decrease in
cases of coronavirus infections in Delhi
but hundreds of people are still suffering
from black fungus.
According to the Delhi
government, medicines
were being made available
to it in a limited
quantity by the Central
government.
Giving information
about the cases of
black fungus, Kejriwal
said nearly 944 cases
of black fungus have
been reported in Delhi,
of these nearly 300
patients are being treated
in various Central
government-run hospitals here.
Kejriwal said nearly 650 patients
with black fungus are undergoing treatment
in Delhi government-run hospitals.
However, there is a shortage of
injections needed to treat patients suffering
from black fungus in Delhi government-run
hospitals.
On Saturday, nearly 1,000 injections
were supplied to Delhi. This number is
quite low because a single patient
receives three to four vaccine jabs in a
day. No vaccines were supplied to the
national capital on Sunday.
Meanwhile, the unlocking process
started in Delhi from Monday with people
facing some difficulty in getting an
e-pass for reporting to office.
Responding to these problems, the
Chief Minister said whatever problems
the citizens of Delhi are facing will be
rectified soon. "I saw that there were
glitches while accessing e-passes on the
Delhi government's portal. The problem
will be fixed. As we get feedback
from people about
things causing inconvenience
to them, we
will fix the glitches,"
Kejriwal added.
Kejriwal on
Monday also opened a
free vaccination centre
for inoculating journalists
and their families
at Rajkiya
Sarvodaya Bal Kanya
Vidyalaya, Mata
Sundri Road, New
Delhi. Journalists and
their families from age
group of 18 to 44 years and above 45
years can get vaccinated at this centre
and will also be able to register themselves
on the spot.
"I am very happy that this arrangement
has been launched in a government
school on Monday. Both Hindi
and English journalists and their families
between age group of 18 to 44
years and above 45 years can come
here and get vaccinated," Kejriwal said.
Registration will be done on the spot
to receive vaccine jabs. "I appeal to all
journalists and their families that they
should come in large numbers so that
everyone gets vaccinated."

26 01-06-2021 to 15-06-2021 WORLD
www.theasianindependent.co.uk