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Kerala CM Pinarayi Vijayan has said that if reports about relief funds from the UAE being turned down are true, the Centre owes Kerala an explanation. Vijayan said, “UAE cannot be considered as any other nation, as their rulers have underlined. Indians, especially Keralites, have contributed immensely in their nation-building.”
The UAE has offered Kerala Rs 700 crore as relief, but this sum is likely to be turned down by the government in keeping with a disaster aid policy set in 2004, when the tsunami struck India and other nations. PM Manmohan Singh had said at the time, “We feel that we can cope with the situation on our own and we will take their help if needed.” Accepting aid from foreign governments complicates diplomatic relations, explains The Indian Express.
But let’s not forget the Centre has released only Rs 600 crore out of the Rs 2,000 crore Kerala sought as aid, while allegedly agreeing to lend UP over Rs 1,000 crore for next year’s Kumbh Mela.
India wins another gold in shooting at Asiad, with Rani Sarnobat acing the women’s 25-metre pistol event. She becomes the second to bring home a gold at this season of the Asian Games, the first being 16-year-old Saurabh Chaudhary.
Members of the Congress received a notice Wednesday, and India Today describes the content succinctly in its headline: “Shut up about Rafale deal, Anil Ambani tells Congress”. Nine members of the Congress have got a warning from Ambani to “avoid, cease and desist” from spreading “false and defamatory statements” on the Rafale deal. If this was meant to be an exercise in subtlety, Twitter shows us that it failed:
https://twitter.com/sidmtweets/status/1032151008984494080
Received “Cease & Desist” Notice from Sh Anil Ambani threatening me with legal consequences if I speak on #RafaleDeal; My reply-I’m a Congress Soldier, a Proud Punjabi who doesn’t get scared with such notices-Tax Payer of this country deserves to know why they paid extra 42000 Cr
— Jaiveer Shergill (@JaiveerShergill) August 22, 2018
Have received a legal 'Cease & Desist' notice on #RafaleDeal from @reliancegroup
Mr. Anil Ambani, I reiterate, my aeroplane making skills (as demonstrated in Lok Sabha) are better than yours. pic.twitter.com/xFlID5ET6f
— Sunil Jakhar (@sunilkjakhar) August 21, 2018
News agency ANI tweeted a copy of the notice:
Congress Spokesperson Jaiveer Shergill receives a cease & desist notice from Anil Ambani led Reliance Infrastructure, Reliance Defence & Reliance Aerostructure asking him to restrain from speaking on Rafale, failing which he will face legal consequences. pic.twitter.com/9yAa2zUcnB
— ANI (@ANI) August 22, 2018
The news didn’t make it to the headlines of some of the major newspapers, namely The Indian Express, The Times of India, and Hindustan Times.
“It is a dark day for the democracy. An industrialist serving legal notice to an elected representative is a serious issue,” Congress leader Sunil Jakhar, one of those served the notice, was quoted as saying to news agency PTI. Sounds about right.
Congress sacrilege law a cause for concern? The Punjab government’s decision to amend the IPC to punish sacrilege of religious texts with life imprisonment — a bid, they claim, to uphold communal harmony — has drawn sharp criticism. One can only guess if it actually ensures peace or provides more bait to fundamentalists.
Like 'cow protection' laws that Congress Govts introduced & BJP lynch mobs now enjoy, here's a Congress Govt making 'sacrilege to religious texts' a crime – mirror image of Pakistan's blasphemy laws. Congress creating yet another handy weapon for India's Sanghi communal fascists. https://t.co/Tbs2AT9yUU
— Kavita Krishnan (@kavita_krishnan) August 21, 2018
Terrible move, @INCIndia. Countries that have introduced blasphemy laws – for whatever reasons – have seen terrifying misuse and enabled the rise of religious fanatics. Please reconsider this – no thought has been given to the fallout. @RahulGandhi @priyankac19 https://t.co/F1qV3dcppa
— Nilanjana Roy (@nilanjanaroy) August 21, 2018
.@INCIndia scaring people with stricter laws will not ensure communal harmony political parties staying away from religion might… https://t.co/wQJxv7I789
— Kunal Kamra (@kunalkamra88) August 22, 2018
Four separate incidents of violence in Jammu & Kashmir on Eid led to the death of a police inspector, two constables, and a BJP worker. The violence “coincided with the arrival of the state’s new governor-designate Satya Pal Malik”, reads the front page of Hindustan Times.
News it’s just kinda cool to know
Prozac, a common antidepressant, could counter some of the effects of brain aging. In other words, Prozac can retain some of the brain’s “plasticity”, the capacity of cells to change, a study has found. This, the researchers said, could prevent the “sensory and cognitive declines associated with normal brain aging”, The Hindu reports.
Also, humans got a firm grip some 500,000 years ago. This fact has come to light after the discovery of prehistoric stone tools that would have required a firm grip to use. Researchers are excited because hand fossils that date beyond 300,000 years are rare, reports The Week.
Business Class
Rules to make internet and social media firms more responsible for fake news? “The union government is likely to introduce new guidelines by September to heighten the accountability of internet and social media companies under Indian law and to ensure they react quickly to stop the spread of rumours or offensive content on their platforms,” reports The Economic Times.
The smartphone market’s Chinese champion. “China’s Xiaomi reported a near 152 per cent on-year jump in revenue from overseas operations in the second quarter ended June to 16.4 billion yuan (Rs 16,693 crore approx), partly helped by strong growth in India smartphone sales,” reports The Economic Times.
Point of View
The Centre has asked WhatsApp to do more to check the spread of fake news. The Indian Express writes in its editorial, “The messenger must not be targeted, but it must be more responsible if it is not to invite the greatest evil — state snooping and censorship.”
There’s a debate on whether India should accept aid offered for Kerala by the UAE. The Times of India writes in its editorial, “India does accept assistance but is finicky about how it’s routed. It’s important to avoid a misplaced sense of pride in the face of a calamity. In March 2011, following the east Japan earthquake, Japan didn’t hesitate to accept India’s assistance in the form of a rescue and relief team, and aid in kind.”
Journalist Indrani Bagchi argues that India should not accept the UAE’s aid. She writes in a column in The Economic Times, “Changing India’s image for the world has been an ongoing national project for a while now. In the early 2000s, former foreign and finance minister Jaswant Singh had made the first move to tell India’s major donors that it no longer needed aid. The UPA government completed that initiative of taking India out of that global box.”
US President Donald trump has started a global trade war by imposing tariffs on imports from several countries, including some US allies. Professor Ravi Arvind Palat of the State University of New York at Binghamton writes in a column in The Hindu, “Donald Trump’s trade war ignores the complexity of world supply chains and glosses over issues within US industry.”
Prime Time
On India Today TV, a debate was held on the controversy over funds for relief efforts in Kerala. Kerala finance minister Thomas Isaac said they were disappointed with the money allotted by the Centre. The minister stated, “I don’t want to pick up a fight with the Centre, but I leave it to the people and the central government to decide whether Rs 600 crore is enough given the scale of devastation.”
On the possibility of the Centre turning down the UAE’s offer of Rs 700 crore aid money, the house was divided. According to Rajdeep Sardesai, if a global donor meet was organised and relief supplies were accepted from foreign countries like Saudi Arabia during the Gujarat earthquake in 2001, it should be done for Kerala too. Probably, it’s time that the reconstruction of Kerala be the sole priority.
‘What’s wrong in saying Bharat Mata ki Jai?’ asked Republic TV‘s patriot-in-chief Arnab Goswami. The point arose after former J&K chief minister Farooq Abdullah was heckled Wednesday by young Kashmiris during Eid prayers at a mosque for chanting “Bharat Mata ki Jai” at former PM Atal Bihari Vajpayee’s prayer meet.
BJP leader and national spokesperson Sambit Patra said members of the “break-India brigade, who are supported by Pakistan, must be taught a lesson”. Major Gaurav Arya of Republic TV added that the pseudo-intellectuals of Kashmir were more harmful than terrorists in India.
Professor P.L. Vishweshwar Rao upheld the prominence of the Constitution and stated that not chanting specific slogans didn’t amount to insulting the nation in any way. He added that any form of imposition on certain communities was against the provisions of the Constitution.