Delhi CM Kejriwal Tests Negative For Coronavirus

Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Tuesday underwent the COVID-19 test after he developed a sore throat and mild fever on Sunday.

At present, the fever of the Aam Aadmi Party convenor has come down and also his throat pain is decreasing.

The 51-year-old Delhi Chief Minister on Sunday complained of fever and cancelled all of his meetings thereafter.

According to the Health Ministry, Delhi so far has recorded as many as 29,943 cases of COVID-19. Out of the total, 17712 are currently active in the capital and 11357 have been discharged/cured.

A total of 874 have died in Delhi due to lethal infection.

(ANI)

India Covid-19 Count Reaches 2,66,598

India on Tuesday registering the highest single-day spike of 9,987 coronavirus cases, taking the total number of COVID-19 cases to 2,66,598 cases, according to the Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare.

331 patients have died due to the disease in the last 24 hours. Overall 7,466 deaths have been caused due to the infection so far.

Presently, there are 1,29,917 active cases while 1,29,214 patients have been cured/discharged. While one patient has migrated.

Maharashtra’s COVID-19 count has climbed to 88,528 while coronavirus cases in Tamil Nadu have reached 33,229.

A total of 49,16,116 samples were tested in the country till now of which 1,41,682 samples were tested in the last 24 hours. (ANI)

A Defiance That Refuses To Die

It is 36 years since the ill-fated Prime Minister of India, Indira Gandhi ordered India’s Army to attack one of the holiest and iconic places in South Asia, Sri Darbar Sahib (Golden Temple). The attack exposed more about 1984 India, its Army, its lack of self-confidence, its intellectual bankruptcy and the hollow nationalism of Congress party than the Sikhs. It was a junctural moment as the Indian colonialist worldview and institutions came face to face with the still unfinished simmering indigenous Swaraj movements that had brought the mighty British Empire down.

The Nehruvian vision of post-colonial ‘westernised’ India began to crumble on the day of the attack as it took on the institution (Golden Temple) that had given impetus to the decolonisation movement in British India in 1920s. The colonial ideological rot that had infected every sphere of Indian institutional, academic and literary life was to unravel.

There were bigger than life personalities. Leading the post-colonial State was Mrs Indira Gandhi, daughter of the first Indian Prime Minister Jawharlal Nehru and a formidable lady who brought in the Emergency in 1976 to secure her power, overthrew the Pakistan Army from Bangladesh and outwitted all her opponents in the Congress. Her last act was to order an attack on Sri Darbar Sahib on 1st June 1984. She paid for it with her life on 30th October 1984.

Leading the challenge to the westernised Indian State was Baba Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale, a charismatic personality and steeped in the knowledge of traditional Indian discourses and driven by Sikh aspirations. He died in the attack in June 1984.

Few if any of Indian analysts saw the attack and subsequent civil unrest in Punjab in historical terms. The narrative propagated by the State was echoed without critique by the intellectuals. The State’s story was that a religious fanatic based secessionist movement pursuing its aim through terrorism was threatening the ‘unity’ of mother India. Critique, if any, was around human rights rather than the conflict of ideas, expectations and visions in post-colonial India.

The Indian intellectual was fed and bred on the idea of the perfect country and civilisation to be the secular, liberal and socialist entity in the image of the post-enlightenment European States and political culture. In this worldview, other cultures had to embark on this trajectory to progress from their primitive pasts.

ALSO READ: India’s Fissiparous Politics, An Essay

In this ‘future’, there was little of 5,000 years of Indian civilisation, its philosophies or its worldviews in the foundations. India had to be Europeanised whole sale, root and branch. India set itself to become a ‘modern developed country’ both industrially and intellectually, whatever that meant.

What remained of native India was cultural idiosyncrasies such as language, dance and religious rituals. The public sphere post-1947 was the triumph of western concepts as if 5,000 years of intellectual thought in India had only saree and curry to offer.

On 1 June 1984, this colonial ingrained India attacked the India that had survived thousands of years, tens of invasions and Empires and several attempts at changing its core pluralist civilisation. What the Mughals and the British could not achieve, the Congress Party had set its mind to accomplish. It was determined to destroy the past, the fabric of South Asian civilisation and transform it. The mission for India is revealed in Nehru’s book, Discovery of India, and it is writ large in the Constitution of India.

The Constitution, drafted from German, Irish, American and British sources, to this day puts its belief in secularism, despite thousands of years of history of pluralism or Bahuda. The modern Indian State obediently carried on the colonial strategy of marginalising indigenous Indian philosophical and political thought into the bracket of personal religion, thus making their thoughts irrelevant to the political public space. The inevitable tension between an alien political theory without hinterland in Indian thought and indigenous ideologies, first came to fore violently in 1984 at the doors of Sri Darbar Sahib.

It was the willingness of the Army to attack its own people and institutions that bewildered Sikhs around the world and many India observers. At least one to-be Chief of Army refused to indulge in Mrs Gandhi’s fantasy. In 1983, Lt General Srinivas Kumar Sinha advised gravely against it. He was bypassed and General AS Vaidya obliged becoming Chief, only later to pay with his life.

Lt Gen Srinivas Sinha advised Indira Gandhi against Operation Blue Star but he was snubbed.

An Army is a trained killing machine, fed on the idea of hostile invader enemies. The Indian Army was established by the British to treat the Indian as the enemy in order to protect the British from Indians driven by ideas of usurping the Crown in India. Post 1947, little was done to re-educate the Army to see itself as a force to defend Indians from invasions alone. It has been a pliable instrument to use in the hands of Indian political masters.

ALSO READ: Independence Day For A 5,000-Yr Old Civilisation!

Even the Chinese Army refused to attack its own people in Tiananmen Square episode. Currently, the US army has indicated its unwillingness to carry President Donald Trump’s orders to crackdown on domestic protests. Armies don’t solve political issues, they just kill. That’s what happened in 1984. Perhaps the Indian Army has changed now and become truly nationalist protecting borders rather than acting as the Praetorian Guard for an ineffectual governing elite.

In 1984, the political class and the bureaucracy was also on a rollercoaster colonial train with no brakes. It was simply new management running a defunct system that had been rejected by the Sikh uprising in Punjab and Gandhi’s Swaraj movement. Incredibly, like the evil character in a horror movie, it survived intact after 1947. The political class and bureaucracy had loads of instruction sheets left by colonial masters augmented by Oxbridge educations on running a colonial Governance but had no access to a repair manual when things went wrong.

Consequently, the system threw the same set of tools at every problem including the challenge from Bhindranwale. This was a cocktail of detention laws, police excesses, Central rule and then emergency powers bringing in the Army. The solution was run on automatic memory from colonial days when the British saw Indians as the enemy. No originality or creative political solutions have emerged in a post-colonial state badly in need of major institutional and constitutional change by engagement with people after the violence of colonialism. 

In this state of an alien governance system run by an indigenous elite, a leader from one of the natural community of the many communities in India was seen as a primitive village preacher turned terrorist challenging the ‘post-colonial enlightenment vision’. Bhindranwale was called a feisty preacher turned delusional politician until February 1984 in almost all of the Indian Press and by Indian Congress politicians.

ALSO READ: Kartarpur Langah, The Road To Peace

As his appeal and his hold on the people of Punjab, particularly the Sikhs, grew and grew, a shaken Indira Gandhi decided to label him a terrorist in February 1984. No new action or legal charges had taken place to justify that label, nor was there a warrant for his arrest. But it was a story that the scribes obliged as did some of the western liberal media to prepare the grounds for an attack on Sri Darbar Sahib. No Indian editor asked, where is the warrant of arrest?

The story of Bhindrawale as an illiterate village preacher threatening India’s rapid advance towards becoming a mirror image of a Germany or United States was also promoted by Indians around the world. These were Indians desperately aping their white role models caricatured brilliantly in the 1990s British sitcom ‘Goodness Gracious Me’. The irony was that Mrs Gandhi herself was only a Matric pass. The difference was one could speak English and the other could not, the only criterion by which a literate Indian from an illiterate Indian was judged by post colonial Indians.

Bhindranwale was a brilliant orator who could command the attention and awe of the Punjabi masses, especially the Sikhs. He was head of the DamDami Taksal, an influential Sikh seminary. Brought up in the best traditions of Sikh chivalry and fearless courage when faced with great odds, he had gained a huge following. Like Mahatma Gandhi, he knew how to articulate the hopes and expectations of the masses. In Punjab they did not want to become Brown Sahibs as fading copies of the white sahibs who had left, but to remain part of the Dharmic tradition of Sikhi and to find expression within the system of governance denied to indigenous political ideologies. This has never been analysed by Indian academics whose work often at best resembles polished journalism rather than exploration of deeper currents of history and ideas. Journalists and writers have concentrated on the personality and actions rather than the clash of visions and hopes in a narrative set for them by western academics.

Bhindranwale, like many Sikhs, was disturbed by the recurrent political campaigns in Punjab around economic and political autonomy to restore Sikh values in the regional system. This had been going on since 1947 and rearticulated in the 1971, then the 1976 Anandpur Sahib resolution. He felt the Akalis were either too weak or had been using the Anandpur Sahib resolution as an opportunist political manifesto to harvest the Sikh vote in Punjab without wanting to resolve it.

The Anandpur Sahib Resolution was based on a 1929 Lahore Agreement between Sikh leaders and Congress. Having witnessed the successful Gurdwara campaign in Punjab, Congress sought to get Sikhs on board for its struggle. The agreement was that Punjab would be autonomous in a Federal India and Sikhs would have a veto on drafting of Constitutional articles that concerned them. the resolution was passed every year by Congress until 1947.

In 1931, Gandhi had advised Sikhs that if his party ever betrayed the 1929 agreement, Sikhs were morally justified to take up arms against the State. This agreement was reneged by Congress in 1949.

Bhindranwale decided to take control of the unsuccessful rallies around Anandpur Sahib Resolution. Astutely he first used Congress to rise to prominence, then distanced himself from it and took it head on having found his base among Sikhs and other Punjabis.

The campaign under Bhindranwale’s leadership was met by State excesses such as extrajudicial executions, illegal detentions, torture of detainees and mass shootings into rallies. The Punjab is one state in India where such measures have always backfired from Mughals, the British to modern India. And it did. The result was a cycle of State and counter State violence that culminated in the attack on Sri Darbar Sahib. That precipitated a new chapter of violence and deep political chasm.

When asked about Khalistan, Bhindranwale said he wasn’t campaigning for one but if the Indian State offered it, he wouldn’t say no this time. This was making a reference to an alleged offer by Lord Mountbatten’s secretary offering a separate State to Sikhs around 1947 but Sikhs apparently didn’t take it seriously.

However, Bhindrawale did say that an attack on Sri Darbar Sahib would lay the foundations for a Khalistan. Thirty six years later, these words continue to fuel political aspirations in the world of Sikhs. The attack marked a substantive turn in Indian history.

In a provocative interview by BBC Asian programme in July 1984, I said that secular India does not need to worry too much about Sikhs. The real movement that will destroy it now is resurrection of Hindu fundamentalist nationalism because metaphorically the State has taken on the Church. Its effects will be far ranging. Neither he nor Indian academics understood the conceptual frameworks on which this statement was made. About 20 years later, the BJP was in power. Rest is history.

For many Sikhs the idea of Khalistan, a land where Sikhs can establish a system of governance formed from Sikh political theory, continues. In the flow of history, significantly, on 6th June 1984, the adulterated vision of a secular westernised India started dying at the gates of Sri Darbar Sahib and a new history began.

In that fated year, the death of two powerful personalities marked a crossover of Indian history. One, Bhindranwale, whose death started the resurgence of quest for a state based on thousands of years of indigenous concepts of Dharam. The other, Mrs Gandhi, died five months later whose death signified the end of the colonial project in the Indian subcontinent.

‘Delhi Hospitals Can’t Deny Treatment To Non-Residents’

Delhi Lieutenant Governor Anil Baijal, who is Chairperson of Delhi Disaster Management Authority (DDMA), on Monday directed authorities in NCT of Delhi to ensure that treatment is not denied to any patient on grounds “of being a non-resident of the national capital”.

The order by the LG, which also directed all government and private hospitals and nursing homes to cater to the needs of the patients, came a day after Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal announced that hospitals in Delhi, except those run by the Centre, will only be available for residents of the national capital in the view of rising COVID-19 cases here.

“The undersigned in his capacity as the Chairperson of the DDMA, hereby directs departments and authorities concerned of NCT of Delhi to ensure that medical treatment is not denied to any patient on the ground of not being a resident of Delhi,” the order said.

“All government and private hospitals and nursing homes situated in the NCT of Delhi have to extend medical facilities to all COVID-19 patients coming for monitoring/treatment without any discrimination of being resident or non-resident of NCT of Delhi,” it added.

The order said that the Supreme Court had “invariably held” in several judgements that the “Right to Health is an integral part of Right to Life under Article 21 of the Constitution of India.”

Kejriwal had said that private hospitals in Delhi will also only treat patients from national capital except for those which provide treatment that is not available anywhere in the country. (ANI)

Mizoram Opts For Lockdown As Others Begin Unlock 1.0

A decision regarding imposing total lockdown for two weeks in Mizoram, beginning midnight of June 9, was taken in a meeting chaired by Chief Minister Zoramthanga on Monday.

The lockdown guidelines will be notified soon, the Department of Information and Public Relations (DIPR) Mizoram said.

“Consultative meeting chaired by CM decides to impose 2 weeks total lockdown of the state w.e.f 00:00 hours of 9th June 2020 in view of the prevailing situation. Lockdown Guidelines will be notified shortly,” the tweet by DIPR, Mizoram read.

Apart from this, the decision to extend the period of quarantine, which currently is 14 days to 21 days with immediate effect, was also taken in the meeting.

As of Monday, the state had 42 confirmed COVID-19 cases, out of which 41 are active and 1 has been cured and discharged, according to DIPR. (ANI)

Kejriwal Advised Isolation, To Be Tested For Covid-19

Soon after Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal self-quarantined himself after feeling unwell, his deputy Manish Sisodia on Monday informed that doctors have advised the AAP chief to undergo COVID-19 test on Tuesday.

Kejriwal, 51, has isolated himself at his residence and all his meetings since Sunday afternoon had been cancelled as he complained of fever and throat pain.

“Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal was complaining of fever and sore throat since yesterday, after which he isolated himself at his residence. All his meetings were cancelled and he has not met anyone since then. The doctors have advised him to undergo COVID-19 test tomorrow and after that, we will be able to say what exactly the problem is,” Sisodia told ANI.

“We are praying to God that he stays happy and healthy and gets back to serving the people of the national capital,” he added.

Kejriwal had on Sunday addressed a video conference briefing in which he announced that hospitals in Delhi, except those run by the Centre, will only be available for people from the national capital during the coronavirus crisis.

Delhi has recorded a total of 28,936 coronavirus cases while 812 people have died so far. (ANI)

93 Terrorists Killed In J&K Till June 8 This Year: Army

In less than six months, the security forces have managed to eliminate 93 terrorists in Jammu and Kashmir including a number of top terrorist leaders.

“Till today morning, 93 terrorists have been killed by the security forces in Jammu and Kashmir. In the last two days, nine terrorists have been killed in the valley without any own fatal casualty,” Army sources said here.

The operations against terrorist groups and their leadership are continuing in both the hinterland as well as on the Line of Control in counter-infiltration operations.

Top terrorist leaders killed include Riyaz Naikoo and Junaid Sehrai along with many foreign terrorists belonging to the Jaish-e-Mohammed, Lashkar-e-Toiba, and Pakistan-created The Resistance Front.

The security forces had suffered a major loss in counter-infiltration operations in Keran sector last month when five Para SF soldiers were killed while eliminating five terrorists who had sneaked into India.

In another operation, a Colonel and three other Army personnel had been killed in a close encounter in Handwara around the same time in May.

“But in the last few operations, there has not been a single own fatal casualty,” the sources said.

The number of encounters in the Kashmir Valley is expected to rise in the coming days as the terrorists would try to infiltrate from Pakistan occupied Kashmir in view of the melting snow. (ANI)

Smartphones

‘Few Smartphones, So We Used Voice Data For e-Class’

Anuj Agarwal, the principal of a government inter college in Uttar Pradesh, says not all his students had smartphones at home. So, he devised new ways to conduct e-classes

I have been in the teaching profession for nearly 12 years now and I wish to take education to the outermost fringes of society. I teach Social Sciences and English, and I want to impart knowledge to anyone who is curious and dedicated. However, when the Coronavirus struck and schools, colleges were shut down, it acted as a sudden dampener to my purpose.

Our government college, at Manpur in Moradabad, was established recently as the first inter college in the area. We were in the middle of fine-tuning paraphernalia when the virus outbreak happened. Since it was such an unprecedented crisis, it took us some time to figure things out.

Most of our students come from underprivileged background who either do not have smartphones or cannot buy expensive data plans. Nor could we allow them to huddle around a single smartphone for classes because of social distancing norms. We therefore realised we needed to innovate to be able to continue teaching them via distance learning methods.

ALSO READ: ‘Teaching My Daughter In Lockdown’

You will be surprised with what solutions small-town India can come up with to overcome hurdles. Video calls hog data. So we decided to break down school curriculum chapters into smaller topics, and then converted them into voice data.

Next, we disseminated the same chapters via various mediums. To explain some subjects, we made videos on the topic and put them up on public platform like YouTube. We ensured these videos were of short-duration. Those who had access to a basic smartphone and a basic data plan, could opt for the video format.

For those who could not access videos on their phone, we made small audio clips of a few minutes each. These audio clips were sent through both WhatsApp and as normal voice recordings. We also used standard SMS services to send written material. This didn’t require any internet connection or downloading.

Plus, we told our students that we were available on call to clarify any doubt they might have on a particular topic. It’s ok if a student can’t see us, at least they can hear us and learn. So basically we prepared the same knowledge into different formats.

Agarwal believes teachers also learn from students.

What prepared me for this was the fact that I had been a part of both Skill India and Digital India programmes of the government. Thus, I understood the technical aspects of e-learning.

ALSO READ: ‘Online Classes, Pubg And Web Series…’

Our students have classes from 8 am to 2 pm. We have around 60 students in our college and seven-eight teachers, and we keep brainstorming about how we can make learning more accessible. Since I serve as both the Principal as well as the Social Sciences teacher, I ensure that the children can come up to me regarding any query they have about the subject. I have kept some time aside to answer their queries related to Coronavirus or any other important social issues. Many a time students surprise me with their ideas. Some of them who have access to smart phones at times send us some interesting links and we learn from them.

Thankfully the electricity situation in UP has improved so the students face no problem in keeping their phones charged for classes.

A lot of people are currently praising the Kerala government’s idea of taking education to children who don’t have access to internet through television, but very few know that the HRD ministry had already taken this initiative like SWAYAM Prabha.

For many years (2008-2014), I was involved in teaching children of manual scavengers. Teaching is a deeply fulfilling task and Coronavirus has taught us the importance of being well-informed and adaptive in the face of uncertainty.

India, China Agree To Resolve LAC Issue Peacefully

A day after India and China military commanders held “cordial and positive” talks at Chushul-Moldo point along the Line of Actual Control in Eastern Ladakh, Ministry of External Affairs said the two countries have agreed to “peacefully” resolve the situation in the border areas by continuing the military and diplomatic engagements.

The Indian delegation led by 14 Corps Commander Lt Gen Harinder Singh on Saturday met his Chinese equivalent Maj Gen Liu Lin, who is the commander of South Xinjiang Military Region of the Chinese People’s Liberation Army, to address the ongoing tussle in Eastern Ladakh.

In a statement on Sunday, the MEA said that the meeting between the Corps Commander based in Leh and the Chinese Commander took place in a “cordial and positive atmosphere”.

“Both sides agreed to peacefully resolve the situation in the border areas in accordance with various bilateral agreements and keeping in view the agreement between the leaders that peace and tranquillity in the India-China border regions is essential for the overall development of bilateral relations,” the statement read.

They also noted that this year marked the 70th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between the two countries and agreed that an early resolution would contribute to the further development of the relationship.

“Accordingly, the two sides will continue the military and diplomatic engagements to resolve the situation and to ensure peace and tranquillity in the border areas,” it further read.

China has moved its troops along the Line of Actual Control (LAC) in the Eastern Ladakh areas including the Finger area, Pangong Tso Lake, and Galwan Nala area.

The meeting between military commanders was to discuss and resolve the stand-off in Eastern Ladakh.

Following the meeting, the Army Headquarters’ Directorate General of Military Operations also briefed the Ministry of External Affairs and other concerned government officials about the discussions.

On Friday, officials of India and China interacted through video-conferencing with the two sides agreeing that they should handle “their differences through peaceful discussion” while respecting each other’s sensitivities and concerns and not allowing them to become disputes in accordance with the guidance provided by the leadership.

In the last few days, there has not been any major movement of the PLA troops at the multiple sites where it has stationed itself along the LAC opposite Indian forces.

The Chinese Army’s intent to carry out deeper incursions was checked by the Indian security forces by quick deployment.

The Chinese have also brought in heavy vehicles with artillery guns and infantry combat vehicles in their rear positions close to the Indian territory. (ANI)

Border Row With Nepal To Escalate, No Talks Soon

Nepal has reportedly sought foreign secretary-level talks with India via video conferencing. However, it seems unlikely that India will agree at this stage when the Himalayan nation is all set to pass the Second Constitution Amendment Bill next week, which will give it a legal backing to the updated map that claims parts of the Indian territory.

Nepal watchers here in New Delhi believe India has always offered talks but this depends on reasonableness- if Nepal unilaterally prejudges the situation then it is willfully complicating the prospects of any settlements through talks.

Nepal has fast-tracked the process of bringing the constitution amendment. It is learned that KP Sharma Oli’s government has secured the support of opposition Nepali Congress and is likely to pass the amendment with the desired two-third majority on June 9. Even if Madhesi parties oppose the move, numbers are stacked in favour of the amendment.

Tension has been mounting between India and Nepal after New Delhi inaugurated a road linking Kailash Mansarovar via Lipulekh on May 8 after which Nepal handed over a diplomatic note to India objecting to the move.

Diplomatic ties between the two nations frayed further after the issuance of a new updated map by Nepal on May 20.

The controversial updated map includes Indian areas of Kalapani, Lipulekh and Limpiyadhura in its territory. New Delhi has said that the updated map is “not based on historical facts and evidence”

New Delhi urged Kathmandu to refrain from such an “unjustified cartographic assertion” and respect India’s sovereignty and territorial integrity.

India had earlier said it attaches great importance to deep-rooted historical, cultural and friendly relations with Nepal.

New Delhi also said that it is open to engaging with all its neighbours on the basis of mutual sensitivity and mutual respect in an environment of trust and confidence. This is a continuous process and it requires constructive and positive efforts. Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) also expressed hope that Nepali leadership creates a positive environment for talks on a matter related to the border.

India and Nepal share a 1,800km (1,118-mile) open border. (ANI)