New Delhi: The World Health Organization (WHO) has lost its credibility, Ashwani Mahajan, co-convener of the RSS-affiliated Swadeshi Jagaran Manch, has proclaimed in a piece on the global body’s estimates on India’s Covid deaths.
The WHO has claimed that there were approximately 47 lakh Covid-related deaths in India, which is nearly 10 times the official figure.
“WHO is being quoted as saying that this figure of deaths is not only of direct deaths from Covid, but it also includes the deaths of those who were suffering from other illnesses and who died during the period as they couldn’t get medical aid due to the lockdown during Covid. However, the big difference in the figures comes from direct deaths due to Covid only,” Mahajan wrote on his blog, further claiming that the health body has been “mired in controversies due to its mis-actions during the pandemic”.
He also claimed that the WHO tried to “hide” information that the “infection originated from China’s Wuhan Laboratory”.
“…against a strong opinion around the world, WHO kept arguing that it (the infection) originated from the animal market of China. Most of the experts around the world rejected this claim of the World Health Organization,” wrote Mahajan.
His blog further said that it is “strongly believed” that Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus became WHO Director-General “only through the support of China”, and “in such a situation, the head of the World Health Organization could not afford to displease China”.
Meanwhile, RSS’s English publication Organiser ran a cover story this week dedicated to Tesla CEO Elon Musk, who has been in the headlines ever since his successful bid to take over Twitter.
Other issues that dominated the pages of publications affiliated to the RSS, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), and sister organisations, as well as the writings of some Right-leaning authors this week included allegations that the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) is responsible for the power crisis, the Jodhpur communal violence, PM Narendra Modi’s Europe visit and the standoff between the Centre and the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK)-led government in Tamil Nadu over the Charak Shapath.
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‘Left-Liberals seem to have met their match in Musk’
The Organiser’s cover story, titled ‘Wokes vs Musk: Why Left Meltdown Isn’t Surprising’, authored by senior journalist and security analyst N C Bipindra said that news of the impending Twitter takeover has upset “left-liberal cabal which wants to control the information ecosystem and manipulate the narrative”.
“The Left-Liberals seem to have met their match in super confident Musk, even as Twitter’s board has shown clearly that money is much more powerful than their political leanings,” Bipindra wrote.
“In India, though, the changes that happens at the highest levels in Twitter Inc. may have its own effects (sic) on how the microblogging site conducts itself, having been at loggerheads with the Government of India on more than one occasion in the recent years, and having been forced by courts to follow the law of the land while operating in India,” Bipindra wrote.
Jodhpur violence
Another article in the Organiser talked about the communal tension after violence in Rajasthan’s Jodhpur earlier this month.
The violence in Jodhpur was triggered by a dispute between groups of Hindu and Muslim men who were putting up religious flags and banners at the city’s Jalori Gate roundabout to mark Eid and Parshuram Jayanti, which coincided. This dispute eventually escalated into communal violence, leaving at least 33 injured.
The Organiser piece claimed that when “Muslim mobs unleashed violence on innocent Hindus”, it was met with no action from the Congress-run Rajasthan government.
“It needs to be mentioned here that this was the second incident reported, as earlier in April, stones were pelted on a procession being taken out in Karauli on the occasion of Hindu Nav Varsh. The incident again resulted in clashes when the two communities came face to face. Many vehicles and shops were set ablaze, and dozens were left injured in the incident,” it said.
The piece further said that BJP state president Satish Poonia had written to Rajasthan Governor Kalraj Mishra, drawing his attention to the “anarchy and animosity being spread in the state due to appeasement politics played by Congress”.
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‘For DMK, anything connected with our past, is anathema’
The recent standoff between Tamil Nadu’s DMK-led government and the Centre over the Charak Shapath, the ancient Indian equivalent of the Hippocratic Oath for doctors, was also talked about in Organiser’s latest issue.
On 30 April, first-year students of the state-run Madurai Medical College took the Maharshi Charak Shapath in place of the Hippocratic Oath during their inaugural function, over which the Tamil Nadu Finance Minister Palanivel Thiagarajan allegedly raised an objection.
“For DMK, anything connected with our past, even if it is related to Tamil Nadu, is anathema. That is why they refuse to talk much about the Cholas, Cheras, Pandavas or Pallavas. They don’t take pride in it. It was because they were pious, religious, established temples and nurtured Tamil culture,” wrote Tamil Nadu BJP’s vice president K. Kanagasabapathi.
‘Greed of free power making country’s distribution firms poorer’
The cover story of the Hindi RSS publication Panchjanya was about climate justice. It also held the AAP, which is in power in Delhi and Punjab, and its “freebies politics” responsible for the looming power crisis.
“The second biggest reason for the power crisis is free electricity and its theft. In states like Delhi and Punjab, the greed of free electricity is making the country’s electricity distribution companies poorer. At present, the power distribution companies of the country are incurring a loss of about Rs 5 lakh crore. Because of this, these companies are not able to buy expensive power and are cutting power. If a state declares free electricity, then its cost will have to be met from somewhere else,” wrote Deepak Upadhyay.
Upadhyay further wrote that there is no shortage of electricity, and the crisis has emerged only due to “poor management”.
‘Country needs labour intensive planning, tech’
Expressing concern over increasing unemployment in the country, the Bhartiya Mazdoor Sangh, an RSS-affiliated body working on labour rights, said in its monthly magazine Vishwakarma Sanket that the country needs “labour-intensive planning, labour-intensive technology and labour-intensive economy”.
“According to the United Nations World Population forecast, the working population (aged 15 to 59 years) in India is 88 crore. This will increase to 102 crore in 2045. In such a situation, the solution of employment will be possible only with the correct assessment of the employment scenario and the factors affecting it,” read an editorial in the magazine.
The piece further said that the BMS had often raised the demand for a national employment policy. “Employment is an issue that is influenced by many factors. One enters the workforce on the basis of working population, social values, nature of work, educational enrollment. The country needs labour-intensive planning, labour-intensive technology and labour-intensive economy,” it said.
Hiranmay Pandya, president of the BMS, also had some words of advice for ‘karyakartas’ in a separate article.
“The speed of change expected in society is determined by how deeply we have understood the idea and how much we have contemplated it. Are we still as active as we were in adversity? Have favourable circumstances made us lazy?” he wrote.
“Many organisations were destroyed in the flow of time due to loss of direct contact with society. This is not likely to happen to us all because we have a practice of meeting regularly, but the possibility cannot be ruled out,” Pandya added.
JNU professor urges govt to do away with Places of Worship Act
Dr Pravesh Kumar, assistant professor at the School of International Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University, wrote an article in the Hindu Vishwa, the fortnightly magazine of the Vishva Hindu Parishad (VHP), urging the government to do away the Places of Worship Act, 1991, while claiming that several Hindu structures were destroyed by Islamic invaders.
“It took the Hindu community decades to prove that Ayodhya has the temple of Lord Ram, whereas the Gyanvapi mosque case is still on trial. The Congress government is also responsible for this, which passed the Places of Worship Act, 1991. Even Muslim historians agree that several monuments were Hindu places of worship earlier… What is the harm in taking these structures back and establishing the Hindu pride once again?” he wrote.
Modi’s Europe visit
Meanwhile, former Rajya Sabha MP Balbir Punj wrote on Twitter about the difference in diplomacy under Modi’s era, in context of his latest Europe visit.
“Under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, India has conveyed the message of peace and harmony to the world. This used to happen even in the period of Pandit Nehru. The Panchsheel principle is an example of the same. But there is a big difference between the two,” Punj wrote.
“In 261 BC, Emperor Ashoka had called for peace after winning the Kalinga war, which the world still considers influential. If Ashoka had not been victorious in Kalinga, would his talks of peace and harmony have any value? The truth is that the talk of peace and brotherhood from the face of the defeated, weak is considered cowardice. The journey of independent India from Pt. Nehru to Prime Minister Modi’s tenure can be understood in this context,” he added.
(Edited by Gitanjali Das)
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