Temperature To Decrease By 2-3 Degrees In Northwest: IMD

The major spell of heatwave in northwest India has come to an end and the temperature is likely to decrease by two to three degrees due to the increased presence of clouds, said senior Scientist at India Meteorological Department RK Jenamani.

Speaking to ANI on Tuesday, Jenamani said, “The major spell of the heatwave is over. The heatwave will remit from tomorrow in Rajasthan, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Punjab, Haryana, Delhi, Himachal Pradesh and Jammu and Kashmir. The impact of the heatwave was most seen in Delhi on April 9, 10, and 11. It was the highest in the first 15 days in the last 72 years. In Delhi, the heatwave remained for nearly 13 days.”

He further said, “Due to the increased presence of clouds over Delhi, Punjab, Rajasthan & Haryana, the temperature will decrease by 2-3°C and heatwave will remit. Delhi will have wind and cloud conditions. Predicted western disturbance is already showing effects over north-western India,” he added.

“All India temperature was the highest in 122 years due to no rainfall in last 50 days. Heatwave conditions might arise in Rajasthan around April 16. Another western disturbance is expected from 18 April,” added Jenamani. (ANI)

13 Dead After Consuming Poisonous Mushrooms In Assam

As many as 13 people died within a week after consuming poisonous mushrooms in four districts of Upper Assam.

All the victims were admitted to Assam Medical College and Hospital (AMCH) in the Dibrugarh district.

Dr Prasanta Dihingia, Superintendent of AMCM told ANI that all the victims died at AMCH while undergoing treatment.

“13 people including a minor died due to consumption of poisonous mushroom in last seven days. Total 39 patients were admitted to the hospital from four districts of the Upper Assam region and out of which 13 people died,” Dr Prasanta Dihingia said.

He further said that the victims were from Dibrugarh, Tinsukia, Sivasagar and Charaideo districts.

“Most of them are from tea garden areas. Many people from the Upper Assam region fall ill after eating poisonous mushrooms every year,” Dr Dihingia added. (ANI)

J-K: Demand For Flowers Increase Ahead Of Wedding Season

Ahead of the upcoming wedding season in the valley, the planters of Jammu and Kashmir are hopeful of an increase in demand and have started selling their flower saplings in the nurseries.

To prepare saplings for the upcoming season, the growers start creating infrastructure in winter for protecting them from snow and rain and make greenhouses to provide the saplings protection from the temperature.
“After the snowfall, it becomes important for us to make the houses appear beautiful and satisfactory, for which I often get different varieties of flowers, every year,” one of the buyers told ANI on Tuesday.

“Planting these flowers at home gives a satisfying sight to the eyes, especially in the morning,” he added.

“In these greenhouses, the growers sow the flower seeds to become saplings, which will be later sold to the people for installing flower plants in their homes,” Shoukat Ahmad, an employee of the nursery told ANI.

“This is the time for sale. As per the demands, we have grown a variety of flowers for the wedding as well as home decor purposes,” said Shahid Bhat, plant grower at Sapling nursery told ANI.

“We have grown Pensee, Flocks, Dockflowers, Antrum flower for the wedding season and have different flower varieties, including Bonsai for the home decor purposes,” he added.

From mid-March, people start purchasing such flower saplings from the shopkeepers and use them to decorate their homes.

These flower saplings generate huge business and employment for the people in Kashmir as the citizens often use them for the purpose of decoration.

Many people buy the flower plants from nurseries and further sell them in the market to gain profits.

The growers are expecting good returns on their investments from the business, as the saplings are currently ready to be sold off. (ANI)

K’taka Contractor Death Row: Cong demands Eshwarappa’s Arrest

Karnataka Congress president DK Shivakumar on Wednesday said that a corruption case must be registered against Minister KS Eshwarappa for allegedly demanding commission from deceased contractor Santosh Patil.

Addressing a joint press conference with former chief minister Siddaramaiah, Shivakumar said, “We will go to Belagavi and meet Santosh Patil’s family. The post-mortem has been delayed, we don’t know the reason why. An FIR has been filed, and now the Minister (Eshwarappa) has to be arrested. A corruption case must also be slapped against him.”
“He is also a murderer, what he has done is abetment to suicide. The family members have said it,” he added.

The Congress leader alleged that the state police is trying to safeguard the minister in the FIR.

“It is a black spot for the state. The BJP leaders have not spoken on the issue yet. Will the Minister resign? Why has the BJP not considered slapping a corruption charge against Eshwarappa? The police officials are trying to safeguard him through the FIR,” Shivakumar said.

The Congress state chief also announced that the party would protest against the government in front of the Chief Minister’s residence and in all districts.

Leader of Opposition Siddaramaiah demanded the arrest of the Minister and other accused.

“FIR lodged against KS Eshwarappa. He and other accused should be immediately arrested; a case must be filed under the corruption act… In his text message, (deceased contractor) Santosh Patil clearly blamed Eshwarappa for his death. The Minister and his PAs demanded 40 per cent commission. He wrote to PM Modi and met BL Santhosh and others. He categorically mentioned corruption. We demand that the case must be filed under the corruption act,” he said.

Referring to the purported social media message, the Congress leader said “In his WhatsApp message, he clearly said that Eshwarappa is responsible for his death. So Eshwarappa must be arrested.”

Earlier, the brother of the deceased contractor Santosh Patil on Wednesday demanded the arrest of Karnataka Minister KS Eshwarappa and his close aides Ramesh and Basawaraj.

A Congress delegation led by state party chief DK Shivakumar, and former chief minister Siddaramaiah also met the Karnataka Governor Thaawarchand Gehlot, demanding the expulsion of Eshwarappa from the state cabinet as well as his arrest over contractor Santosh Patil’s death. (ANI)

Neetu, Riddhima All Smiles Before Kick-Starting Wedding

It’s a special day for veteran actor Neetu Kapoor as her son Ranbir Kapoor and his lady love Alia Bhatt are all set to commence their wedding festivities.

Neetu, her daughter Riddhima Kapoor Sahni and granddaughter Samara, on Wednesday, were papped outside Ranbir’s Vastu residence in Bandra. They were all dressed in traditional outfits. The big smile on their faces clearly expressed their happiness.

Reportedly, a pooja is being organised at Ranbir’s house today in remembrance of his late father Rishi Kapoor.

Interestingly, at the same time, Ranbir and Alia’s close friend Ayan Mukerji has unveiled the couple’s love song from their film ‘Brahmastra’ to mark their fresh beginnings. (ANI)

Russia-Ukraine War Will Script A New World Order

It seems as if the Russia-Ukraine war has rendered the seminal work by Samuel Huntington The Clash of Civilisations, as completely wrong. As the narrative painted by him 30 years earlier, and which occupied the central place in the world politics particularly by the western liberals has not happened. Instead of a clash of the civilisations, it is now a clash within the civilisation i.e. white, European and Orthodox Christians fighting amongst them. In an interview to George Eaton for the New Statesman, political theorist Noam Chomsky describes the on going war between Russia and Ukraine as “monstrous” for Ukraine.

Chomsky, who has never condemned any anti-Western government, unhesitatingly denounces Vladimir Putin’s “criminal aggression”. But adds that to answer the question, one has to plumb the recesses of Putin’s twisted mind and try to analyse his deep psyche.

“The other way would be to look at the facts: for example, that in September 2021 the United States came out with a strong policy statement, calling for enhanced military cooperation with Ukraine, further sending of advanced military weapons, all part of the enhancement programme of Ukraine joining Nato. You can take your choice, we don’t know which is right. What we do know is that Ukraine will be further devastated. And we may move on to terminal nuclear war if we do not pursue the opportunities that exist for a negotiated settlement,” he further said in the interview.

Expressing his views on democracy and the US interpretation of democracy, Chomsky says that Putin is as concerned with democracy as we are. He said, “If it’s possible to break out of the propaganda bubble for a few minutes, the US has a long record of undermining and destroying democracy. Do I have to run through it? Iran in 1953, Guatemala in 1954, Chile in 1973, on and on… But we are supposed to now honour and admire Washington’s enormous commitment to sovereignty and democracy. What happened in history doesn’t matter. That’s for other people.”

ALSO READ: Theatre Of Horror In Ukraine

Chomsky, who observed in 1990 that “if the Nuremberg laws were applied, then every post-war American president would have been hanged”, spoke disdainfully of Joe Biden, saying: “It’s certainly right to have moral outrage about Putin’s actions in Ukraine, but it would be even more progress to have moral outrage about other horrible atrocities… In Afghanistan, literally millions of people are facing imminent starvation. Why? There’s food in the markets. But people who have little money have to watch their children starve because they can’t go to the market to buy food. Why? Because the United States, with the backing of Britain, has kept Afghanistan’s funds in New York banks and will not release them.”

Chomsky’s contempt for the hypocrisies and contradictions of US foreign policy comes out very clearly in this interview, and in his usual style he has given words to the sentiments prevailing across the globe.

On the other hand the other leading political theorists of our times Francis Fukuyama, while speaking to Megan Gibson for New Statesman opined that we could be facing the end of “the end of history”

On the recent political drama over presidential elections in the United States, Fukuyama, describes the situation as serious, really, since the American Civil War. Commenting on the US’s current political polarisation he says, “There’s a significant chance we’re going to be in a major constitutional crisis at the time of the next presidential election.”

Fukuyama’s critics point out that his thesis about liberal democracy being “the final form of human government” seems obsolete. In his book The End of History and the Last man, he outlined his theory that liberal democracy is greatly preferable to any other form of government and, crucially, that no liberal democracy could progress to a better alternative.

Fukuyama commenting on the likely geopolitical consequences of the war in Ukraine, says that chief among his predictions are: Russia will lose the war, perhaps spectacularly, and this defeat will help the West get out of “our funk about the declining state of global democracy. The spirit of 1989 will live on, thanks to a bunch of brave Ukrainians. For those interested in the stability of the international order, it’s an optimistic, even reassuring, vision of the war’s potential outcome.”

On the surge of global support for Ukraine, Fukuyama sympathises with and endorses the urge to support the Ukrainian plight, but he also warns that it’s hardly a universal phenomenon, even among seemingly democratic countries. He cites India and South Africa as two countries that have so far refused to condemn Russia’s invasion.

Fukuyama also opines that while different opinions might be tolerable, they have also once again highlighted the dysfunction of certain multilateral bodies, like, the United Nations.

His “ultimate nightmare”, he said, is a world in which China and Russia work in harness with one another, perhaps with China bolstering Russia’s war and Beijing launching its own invasion – of Taiwan. If that were to happen, and be successful, Fukuyama said, “then you would really be living in a world that was being dominated by these non-democratic powers. If the United States and the rest of the West couldn’t stop that from happening, then that really is the end of the end of history.”

Analysing the views expressed by the two giants one can only say that the wrong interpretation of liberal democracy and its implementation through force might have resulted in the erosion of the democratic concepts all over the world. Its main champions United Sates and Great Britain both seem to be faltering and trying to impose their will or version of the concept with use of force, which may ultimately result in the establishment of a non-democratic global system, instead of the new world order which the so-called western liberalised world is trying to implement.

India-US Higher education Cooperation To Take Bilateral Ties Forward

A day after India-US announced the intent to establish a new Education and Skills Development Working Group, a Washington-based expert said that higher education cooperation between the two countries will help deliver the real promise of diplomatic relationship.

“Great today to be at Howard University to have a meeting with the Secretary of State and India’s External Affairs Minister to talk about the real promise of US-India higher education cooperation,” Richard Rossow, Wadhwani Chair in US-India Policy Studies at Center for Strategic and International Studies, told ANI.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar on Tuesday participated in a conversation with students, faculty, and leadership of Howard University. Both foreign ministers interacted with Indian students, scholars, and researchers who have worked in the United States, and with US students, scholars, and researchers.

Talking about the key takeaways from this interaction, Rossow said the high-level takeaway is that both ministers got together to talk about higher education. “When you talk about 200,000 Indian students coming here, number of US universities that have research partnerships there-a lot going on that underpins many other elements of our relationship,” he added.

At the working level, Rossow said that the ministers announced during the 2+2 Summit on Monday that they created a new working group on higher education skills development. “Trying to underscore and underpin this vital element of our relationship that sits there, very exciting to see this much attention,” he said.

On the question of what more can be done in the field of higher education, Rossow said “Once the American business realise that India is today and certainly will be in future a critical part of global investment and trade regimes, they got to send signals to MBA students that you need a little bit of background if you gotta succeed in big corporate America.”

Answering a question about the 2 + 2 dialogue, the senior fellow said,” It’s great for the two countries to get together when there was a lot of tensions building up over the difference of opinion on the Russian invasion of Ukraine.” “Second, you did see some significant announcement on the Space Situational Awareness,” he added.

Jaishankar earlier said that a key driver in this change has been the human element which includes 4.4 million Indian diaspora that has defined India’s image in US society. “The 4.4 million Indian diaspora has literally defined our image in this society and helped forge relationships that are an enormous source of strength for us,” he said.

Highlighting the “deeper academic” ties between the United States and India, Blinken said that the partnership is absolutely crucial and pertinent for addressing the problems of the 21st century. He said that at least 200,000 Indian students are studying in US universities.

This Howard University event comes a day after India and US reiterated their support to further strengthen cooperation in the field of education and skill development through joint collaborations and promote student and scholar mobility to build people-to-people linkages between the two countries.

“In this regard, the ministers announced the intent to establish a new India-U.S. Education and Skills Development Working Group,” the joint statement on the Fourth India-U.S. 2+2 Ministerial Dialogue read. (ANI)

SpiceJet Operation Kaveri sudan

DGCA Restrains 90 SpiceJet Pilots From Flying Boeing 737 Max

The Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) has restrained 90 pilots of SpiceJet airline from operating Boeing 737 Max aircraft after finding they were not properly trained, informed SpiceJet on Wednesday.

“90 pilots have been restrained from flying the Boeing 737 MAX. They will have to undergo training again to the satisfaction of DGCA,” DGCA Director-General Arun Kumar told ANI.

However, the restriction does not impact the operations of MAX aircraft, he added. “SpiceJet currently operates 11 MAX aircraft and about 144 pilots are required to operate these 11 aircraft”, said DGCA Director-General.

Of the 650 trained pilots on the MAX, 560 continue to remain available. The pilots will have to undergo training again, in a proper manner, on the Max simulator.

The DGCA’s move comes after a 737-800 plane operated by China airline crashed in mountains in southern China killing 132 people on board last month.

Indian airlines like SpiceJet, Vistara and Air India Express operate Boeing 737 aircraft in their fleets. (ANI)

Lanka: PM Rajapaksa Offers To Hold Talks With Protesters

Sri Lanka’s Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa said on Wednesday that as the country’s prime minister, he is ready to speak with the protesters who have been protesting against the government at Galle Face in Colombo for five days over the economic and political crisis.

“Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa has stated that he is ready for a discussion. Rajapaksa is likely to take the views of the protesters to deal with the current economic challenge faced by the country. If the protesters are ready for this discussion, they will inform the government about the group of the representatives who will speak on behalf of the protestors,” Sri Lanka Prime Minister’s office said.

Sri Lankans are set to celebrate Happy New Year on April 14. PM Rajapaksa has reached out to the protesters on the eve of the new year.

The island nation is facing its worst economic crisis since independence with food and fuel shortages, soaring prices and power cuts affecting a large number of the people in the island nation, resulting in massive protests over the government’s handling of the situation.

Sri Lanka’s economy has been in a free-fall since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, leading to the crash of the tourism sector.

Sri Lanka is also facing a foreign exchange shortage, which has affected its capacity to import food and fuel. The shortage of essential goods forced Sri Lanka to seek assistance from friendly countries.

The economic situation has led to huge protests with demands for the resignation of Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa and President Gotabaya Rajapaksa.

Earlier, Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa in a special address to the nation on Monday requested people to remain patient and stop taking to the streets in order to enable the government to resolve the situation. (ANI)

‘Kashmir Files Is A Political Ploy To Demonize Muslims’

Majid Maqbool, a senior journalist from Srinagar, saysthe movie seeks to selectively exploit the tragedy of Kashmiri Pandits and promote hatred

The Kashmir Files has been released at a time when Kashmir remains besieged, post August 5, 2019, following the unilateral abrogation of Article 370 by the ruling BJP government in New Delhi and further downgrading of the former state into a Union Territory. This has been followed by a six-month long lockdown and communications shutdown and world’s longest internet shutdown, which, suddenly, disconnected people from each other and the outside world for months.

Since then the Indian State, under the current regime, has tightened its grip and sought to curb all forms of independent media, civil society engagements, and political voices across the spectrum, including the local media. This has virtually compelled them to either remain silent or toe the line of the ruling dispensation.

Draconian laws like the PSA and UAPA continue to be slapped against civil society activists and journalists and anyone who dares to raise his or her voice against the many injustices normalized in the Valley are hounded, punished and put into prison.

Predictably, the film is a brazen attempt to selectively exploit the tragedies of one community – the Kashmiri Pandits of Jammu and Kashmir. This community is shown as the only victim in the state, and the other community, the Kashmiri Muslims, is further demonized and projected as the perpetrators.

ALSO READ: ‘Kashmir Files Is A Farrago Of Disinformation’

The fact is that the film was openly promoted by the ruling party and even Prime Minister Narendra Modi, and, other BJP ministers and rightwing groups.  This was a clear message to the people of India to watch the film and thereby proves the political intent behind the making of this kind of biased cinema.

The Kashmir Files is a political project to further demonize Kashmiri Muslims and Indian Muslims at a time when they are already politically dispossessed and repressed by the State. Certainly, they are being attacked ritualistically, and are being treated as second class citizens. The assault on Muslims and their religious places during the auspicious occasion of Ram Navami, especially in certain BJP-ruled states, is a transparent pointer.

Contrary to the relentless hate politics and anti-Kashmiri propaganda by certain sections of Kashmiri Pandits in public forums and media, the besieged people in Kashmir, across all communities, Hindus and Muslims, are not consumed by so-called ‘anti-KP’ hatred. They are largely sympathetic to their condition and desire their return home without their pain being politically exploited and used by the rightwing political forces.

While growing up in Kashmir, I have never heard a single Kashmiri Muslim not fervently wanting the return of Kashmiri Pandits to their homes — however, not in separate, isolated and ghettos protected by security forces. This would only sharpen the divides and disconnects among both the communities and block all forms of meaningful individual and collective engagements. Over the years, the return of the KPs has been politicized and exploited by parties like the BJP to further their political agendas, instead of making genuine efforts for their welfare and rehabilitation. 

The film has intentionally fictionalized and exploited old, simmering wounds of the Pandits. The rightwing groups and parties have tried to further stoke anti-Muslim sentiments by invoking this film in their hate speeches to demonize and marginalize the Muslim community at large in India. Not surprisingly, the film has allegedly done good business at the box office, creating an easy template to replicate in future and a dangerous business and cinematic model of monetizing and marketing hate.

As told to Amit Sengupta