Mamata Banerjee’s disclosure of her gotra suggests she is cracking under pressure of BJP’s polarising poll campaign in Bengal. A Shandilya Brahmin as a CM or a janeudhari Dattatreya Brahmin as Congress supremo makes no difference to voters. Banerjee must give account of her government’s performance, not of her lineage.
US report notes normality in J&K. India must do more to win trust, transparency on ground
The US State Department report rightly acknowledges gradual restoration of normality in Jammu and Kashmir including lifting internet curbs and release of prominent politicians. But it notes a worrying rise in application of UAPA and PSA, detentions and crackdown on journalists. India must do more to enhance trust and transparency.
WHO and world need to move on from Covid origin probe. China will never be transparent
The outrage over WHO’s Covid origin probe report is understandable yet futile. Trying to investigate something that could implicate China, and expect transparency from Beijing, is a fool’s errand. WHO and the world need to move on, focus on ending this pandemic and preventing the next one without Chinese help.
I really wish CM Mamata Banerjee had stood from Bhawanipur as well. 2. Brings to mind a scene from Day of the Jackal. The assassin is so confident of his ability, he does not place a second bullet in the chamber. He misses the first time, because de Gaulle unexpectedly bends to kiss an awardee. By the time he manages to reload, he has been despatched to a happier world.
China unquestionably held back information at the initial stages. Quite possibly, local leaders were terrified. The novel coronavirus is not a biological weapon created in a lab. Calling it China / Wuhan virus is exposing Asians to hate crime in the US. 2. Dr Deborah Birx’s statement that, after the first 1,00,000 deaths, many / most of the next 4,50,000 could have been avoided is a terrible indictment of Donald Trump and his record in office. The best informed person on the planet was thinking only about securing a second term. In Brazil, Jair Bolsonaro has done an equally poor job of dealing with the pandemic. 3. The world’s – and India’s – focus now should be on pushing mass vaccination to the ultimate. Along with taking basic precautions.
If use of her passport for foreign travel by former CM Mehbooba Mufti – also her elderly mother, whose husband was Union Home Minister – poses a threat to the security of the nation, clearly we are at some distance from normalcy. The conventional metric is return of tourists to the Valley, a major source of employment and income. Between abrogation and Covid, the sector has been devastated. A more farsighted concern would be the return with dignity and honour of the Kashmiri Pandits to their beloved homeland. We have been using our head too much for Kashmir, the heart not at all.