New Delhi, (ANI): Congress leader Priyanka Gandhi Vadra on Tuesday said that testing for COVID-19 is still poor in Uttar Pradesh, stating that reports of five people have turned out to be positive for the coronavirus after the death of the patient.
Priyanka took to Twitter to write: “I wrote a letter to Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister and requested to increase the testing. Reports of five people have come positive for coronavirus after the death of patient in UP. Testing system is still poor. Make the testing system rapid and orderly. Maximum testing can only give us correct picture.”
Priyanka Gandhi on April 10 had written to Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath urging him to increase the capacity of testing and treatment of coronavirus in the state.Priyanka, in the letter, had said that the menace of coronavirus is spread across the country, including Uttar Pradesh and had stressed the need for strict action and increasing medical facilities in combating the disease.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi today extended the current lockdown to control the spread of coronavirus till May 3 and said any decision on easing restrictions in parts of the country would be taken after April 20, keeping in mind the difficulties faced by the country’s poorest.
“After taking into account all suggestions, we have decided to extend the lockdown till May 3,” PM Modi said in his 25-minute address shortly after India crossed the 10,000-mark in coronavirus cases.
“Till April 20, each district, each state will be monitored closely to see whether the lockdown is being followed. Then we can decide on relaxing the restrictions,” said the Prime Minister.
Some essential activities would be allowed in areas which showed improvement after April 20, he added.
“We absolutely must ensure that this virus does not spread to any further parts of the country. We should be worried every time we hear that someone in some part of the country has died of the virus. We must ensure that new hotspots do not spring up.”
There have been 339 coronavirus deaths in India, according to the latest data from the Union Health Ministry.
India was in much better shape than many major countries in the fight against coronavirus, said the Prime Minister. “If the country had not taken a holistic, integrated approach and had not acted fast, then it is frightening to think what the situation would have been today,” he said.
A day before he surrenders to the National Investigation Agency (NIA), Professor Anand Teltumbde wrote an open letter ‘to the people of India.’ The Supreme Court had denied him any relief earlier.
“I am aware this may be completely drowned in the motivated cacophony of the BJP-RSS combine and the subservient media but I still think it may be worth talking to you as I do not know whether I would get another opportunity,” Mr. Teltumbde noted in his letter.
He said his ‘world turned completely topsy-turvy’ in August 2018 when a team of policemen raided his house in the faculty housing complex of Goa Institute of Management and accused of him having a connection with the Bhima-Koregaon violence. “Although, I was aware that police used to visit the organisers of my lectures, mostly universities, and scare them with enquiries about me, I thought they might be mistaking me for my brother who left family years back,” the letter said. But everything changed for him when the director of his institute called him, while he was in Mumbai on an official visit, and told him the police had raided the campus looking for him.
The police team which raided the institute forcibly got a duplicate key from the security guard, and took videos of his house, claimed Mr. Teltumbde. “Our ordeal began right there,” he said. On the advice of lawyers, he asked his wife to take the next flight to Goa and lodge a complaint with the Bicholim police station stating that their house had been opened in their absence and they would not be responsible if police officials had planted anything. His wife also volunteered to give their telephone number if the officials wanted to conduct inquiries.
Mr. Teltumbde said that in his voluminous writings, which include 30 books, some published internationally, there has not been any insinuation of support to violence or any subversive movement. “But at the fag end of my life, I am being charged for the heinous crime under the draconian UAPA.”
I thought they might be mistaking me for my brother who left family years back,” the letter said. But everything changed for him when the director of his institute called him, while he was in Mumbai on an official visit, and told him the police had raided the campus looking for him.
According to him, the details of the case are strewn across the internet and are enough for any person to know that it is a “clumsy and criminal fabrication.”
Mr. Teltumbde’s letter reads, “I am implicated on the basis of the five letters among 13 that the police purportedly recovered from the computers of two arrestees in the case. Nothing has been recovered from me. The letters refer to ‘Anand’, a common name in India, but the police unquestioningly identified it with me.”
The professor said the form and content of the letters has been trashed by experts and even a justice of the Supreme Court, the only one in the entire judiciary who went into the nature of the evidence. Additionally, the content does not refer to anything that could be remotely construed as even a simple crime, he claims.
“But taking shelter under the draconian provisions of the UAPA, that renders a person defenseless, I am being jailed,” Mr. Teltumbde said, adding, “And this can happen literally to anyone.”
“As I see my India being ruined, it is with a feeble hope that I write to you at such a grim moment. Well, I am off to NIA custody and do not know when I shall be able to talk to you again. However, I earnestly hope that you will speak out before your turn comes,” the letter concludes.
New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi will address the nation tomorrow at 10 am on the coronavirus lockdown, amid requests from states to extend it. The Prime Minister is widely expected to announce an extension of the lockdown till April 30, but with measures to restart the economy.
During his meeting with 13 Chief Ministers on Saturday, PM Modi had agreed that a longer lockdown was necessary to fight the highly contagious COVID-19, but had talked about saving livelihoods as well as lives.
In June 2010, Istanbul witnessed one such mega-concert organised by Grup Yorum with thousands of young Turks as the audience. One of the attractions of the event was a young Kurdish girl who inspired that large mass to sing along with her the lines of “Bella Ciao”. After ten years of the event, the whole world witnessed the brave fight of that girl, Helin Bolek, against one of the most ruthless authoritarian governments in the world.
“Ciao Bella Ciao Bella Ciao Ciao Ciao…”, the beautiful folk song with its origin in the paddy fields of Italy has become the anthem of resistance, freedom and anti-fascist movements all over the world. In Turkey, it was Grup Yorum which played a major role in making the revolutionary song a hot favourite among the youth through their concert shows and albums.
In June 2010, Istanbul witnessed one such mega-concert organised by Grup Yorum with thousands of young Turks as the audience. One of the attractions of the event was a young Kurdish girl who inspired that large mass to sing along with her the lines of “Bella Ciao”. After ten years of the event, the whole world witnessed the brave fight of that girl, Helin Bolek, against one of the most ruthless authoritarian governments in the world. On 3 April 2020, she succumbed to death after 288 days of hunger strike, which she started with Ibrahim Gökçek, another member of the band against the ban on her group and for the release of its detained members.
Grup Yorum is an independent folk collective, a band of singers known for their protest songs, formed in 1985 by four students of Marmara University. The group has been accused of having links to the banned leftist militant group, Revolutionary People’s Liberation Party (DHKP). This resulted in the ban and arrest of many members of the group by the Erdogan government. In protest to the government’s actions, several members of the group including Bolek started a hunger strike in June 2019. Despite the government’s efforts to force-feed them and the frequent arrests, they did not give up the hunger strike, which eventually led to the martyrdom of Bolek.
The conceptually secular-democratic nation of Turkey and its political transformation into a religion based authoritarian State inspired by the cult of Erdogan’s personality is more than a reference for India’s declension to an illiberal democracy. The issues on the protection of minorities (especially that of the Kurds, the largest ethnic minority of Turkey), human rights and freedom of the press are some of the many accusations against the government under President Erdogan.
And the last journey…
The post-truth world is witnessing the potential of the elected governments to exercise fascist ideas by favouring the majority and this is by and large becoming a phenomenon that reconstructs the very definition of fascism today. This further shows the growing immunity of authoritarianism and dictatorship in the so-called socialist, secular and democratic environments.
As Helin Bolek urges us, “. . . I invite you all to multiply the voices,” the time demands nothing better but to resonate the spirit of freedom and resistance that she inspired us through her brave struggle against fascism.
Authorities in Bangladesh have executed a killer of the country’s founding father Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, nearly 45 years after the assassination. Abdul Majed, a former military captain, was hanged at the central jail at Keraniganj near the capital, Dhaka, a minute after midnight of Saturday, said Inspector General of Prisons Brigade General AKM Mustafa Kamal Pasha.
Majed was arrested in Dhaka on Tuesday, Home Minister Asaduzzaman Khan said, adding that the arrest was “the biggest gift” for Bangladesh this year.
Majed publicly announced his involvement in the assassination and was reportedly hiding in India for many years. The execution took place after President M Abdul Hamid rejected a clemency plea filed by Majed, seeking mercy. His wife and other family members visited him for the last time on Saturday.
Majed is one of a dozen defendants whose death sentences were upheld by the country’s Supreme Court in 2009. In 1998, a trial court sentenced them to death for their involvement in the August 15, 1975, killing of Rahman and most of his family members by a group of army officials.
Mujibu Rahman was the father of current Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina who, along with her younger sister Sheikh Rehana, were the only survivors in the family.
After the assassination, subsequent governments and later President Ziaur Rahman awarded the killers by posting them mostly in Bangladesh’s diplomatic missions abroad. Majed was posted as Bangladesh’s ambassador to Senegal in 1980. Rahman, former army chief and husband of former Prime Minister Khaleda Zia, was killed in a military coup in 1981.
In 2010, five others who admitted to taking part in the assassination were hanged. One man died of natural causes in Zimbabwe. The other six convicts, including Majed, were at large. Officials say at least one of them is in Canada and another in the United States.
Bangladesh became independent in 1971 after a nine-month war against what was then West Pakistan, now Pakistan, under the leadership of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman. He was kept in jail in Pakistan during the war and was freed in 1972 amid a global outcry when he returned to newly born Bangladesh via London and India.
The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) will wait for the government’s decision regarding the ongoing coronavirus crisis before taking a call on the Indian Premier League (IPL).
“As of now IPL is postponed till April 15, we will wait for government decision and take a call accordingly,” a BCCI source told ANI.
IPL was scheduled to commence on March 29, however, the threat of coronavirus forced the postponement of the league until April 15. On Thursday, Odisha became the first state to extend the lockdown till April 30. After that, several states such as Punjab, Telangana and Maharashtra extended the lockdown to combat COVID-19.
When asked about the chances of the IPL amid several states extending its lockdown, the source said: “As of now, I cannot comment on it. In the coming few days, we might talk to franchises again but as of now, no decision has been made. We are closely monitoring the situation.”
With 34 deaths and 909 new positive COVID-19 cases in the last 24 hours, the total number of coronavirus cases in India on Sunday climbed to 8356, including 716 cured and discharged and 273 deaths, said the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare. At present, there are 7367 active COVID-19 cases in the country.
Congress General Secretary K.C Venugopal on Saturday said that the central government cannot shake off its responsibility towards the Indians living in foreign countries, especially in the Gulf, in the midst of coronavirus pandemic. Venugopal noted that there has been a substantial increase in coronavirus cases in the Gulf/West Asian countries, particularly Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates.
“Since a vast number of them working in the informal sectors have been living in makeshift labour camps, they have been facing difficulties to follow even social distancing protocol amidst this global pandemic. The fear of community transmission and lack of access to immediate medical help including testing as well as treatment has put their lives in great peril,” he underlined. “It is a matter of concern that, Indian embassies and missions abroad are woefully lacking a comprehensive and practical approach to deal with this unprecedented global health crisis,” added the Congress leader
He further said that the Indian government cannot leave its citizens at the mercy of fate and should take immediate measures to ensure the safety of the citizens stranded in the COVID-19 hotspots abroad. Measures such as ensuring massive testing and providing medical help should be chalked out on an urgent basis to sort out this humanitarian crisis, he demanded.
Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Edappadi K. Palaniswami on Saturday requested Prime Minister Narendra Modi to allocate Rs. 9,000 crore as grant for launching a comprehensive plan to combat COVID-19, read an official statement from the state government.
Chief Minister Palaniswami made the request during the video conference meeting of Prime Minister with the state chief ministers, to discuss the situation arising out of the coronavirus outbreak and the subsequent lockdown imposed to prevent its spread.
“Tamil Nadu may be allocated Rs 9,000 crore grant for launching a comprehensive plan for combating COVID-19 and its aftermath on the State’s economy,” Chief Minister Edappadi K. Palaniswami quoted as saying.
“I also request an adhoc grant of 1000 crore rupees from NDRF immediately to procure medical and protective material,” he added. Expressing concern over the economic condition in the state due to the lockdown, he requested additional funding as well as allotment of essential commodities to support the unorganised sector workers, agricultural labourers etc.
“If the lockdown is extended, I request additional funding as well as allotment of essential commodities to support the unorganised sector workers, agricultural labourers etc. They may be provided 2,000 rupees per family,” he said.
He further said that PPEs, N-95 Masks, and ventilators have to be provided in sufficient numbers, for which he had earlier requested 3,000 crore rupees and the same may be sanctioned. “Additional borrowing of 33 per cent above the permitted level for the fiscal year 2019-20, may be allowed for 2020-21 for combating this pandemic,” he said.
Chief Minister informed PM Modi that a total of 21 Government hospitals and 155 private hospitals have been notified to provide treatment for the infected people. “Presently the State has 12 Government facilities and 7 private labs for COVID testing. This needs to be increased by having at least one per district,” he added.
Once upon a time the art of my ancestors was usurped, the women were stopped from dancing based on moral grounds and by a law. People were arrested and many had to undergo severe repercussions of poverty and oppression. The art was then altered to fit upper-caste bodies – our bodies and our aesthetics were discarded. And now times have changed…
Nrithya Pillai
If you wish to be aware of and not support continuing oppressive behavior, exclusionary caste politics and ever continuing appropriations of devadasi dance and want to make a conscious choice to actually support the traditional hereditary artistes and their art in a manner that is uplifting of their memories, here is something you should read.
Let us speak, sing and dance for ourselves! Once upon a time the art of my ancestors was usurped, the women were stopped from dancing based on moral grounds and by a law. People were arrested and many had to undergo severe repercussions of poverty and oppression. The art was then altered to fit upper-caste bodies – our bodies and our aesthetics were discarded. And now times have changed, some of us women carry the pain of the grave injustice that happened to our women from the previous generations, but we also carry their art.
Archival picture of Devadasis with a Melam troupe
We understand our art, we understand what has happened to it and how different it is today to dance freely for the others, but our burdensome past lets us not. But, how can we dance freely? Where is the space for the actual women from the hereditary dancing communities, when courtesan dance and hereditary art – performance and articulation again is the bastion of upper-caste / upper-class women?
The word devadasi and the sociopolitical and cultural repercussions and the persecution that comes from belonging to such communities falls on us women, while these privileged women play devadasi dress up in the guise of seeking and producing authentic art and dance- although ultimately it is only reimagined, re-constructed and again highly embodied art .
We as women from the hereditary community have been forced by law and society to feel shame and embarrassment with our identities, we wish to claim our identities in ways that are comfortable and not shaming of us and our ancestors. We may not want to call our dance “devadasi dance”, we may not have the energy to fight for dignity, which is a given for others, we may not want to dress up to satiate your ideas of “devadasi fantasy” – yet our bodies and minds represent them better. Please try and understand our politics and the conflicts within us. Our space was forcefully taken away then and it is still unavailable today. Open up the space for authenticity…
Nrithya Pillai during a performance. File (Courtesy: Deccan Chronicle)
Let our women speak, dance and sing- the art of our ancestors , through our own bodies.Be conscious while you support art and artists. And as for dancers please think before you decide to play devadasi dress up or represent the women of such communities and their art forms, after all representing a devadasi or a hereditary dancer also comes from the lived experience of belonging to the community.It is truly sad and oppressive for us to watch constant re-appropriation and violence on our art forms.
