May 2020 Archives

India Expels Two Pakistani High Commission Officials for ‘Espionage Activities’

They duo were apparently arrested while obtaining Indian security establishment documents from an Indian national and handing him money and an iPhone. Pakistan says the charges are ‘false and unsubstantiated’.

New Delhi: India on Sunday accused two Pakistan high commission officials of spying, and gave them one day to leave the country.

“Two officials of the High Commission of Pakistan in New Delhi were apprehended today by Indian law enforcement authorities for indulging in espionage activities,” said a press release issued by Ministry of External Affairs.

The communique did not reveal any names. However, official sources identified the two as Abid Hussain and Mohammed Tahir, working in the consular section of the high commission in New Delhi.

They were apparently arrested by the police while obtaining Indian security establishment documents from an Indian national and handing him money and an iPhone, the sources stated.

The duo claimed that they were Indian nationals and allegedly even produced fake Aadhar cards. “Later, during interrogation, they confessed that they were officials at Pakistan High Commission and worked for ISI,” said the sources.

The MEA further stated that the Indian government had declared both officials as “persona non grata for indulging in activities incompatible with their status as members of a diplomatic mission and asked them to leave the country within twenty-four hours”.

The Pakistan charge d’affaires was issued a demarche with a “strong protest” that the “activities of these officials of the High Commission of Pakistan were against India’s national security”, added the press note.

As the high commissions of both countries are not headed by ambassadors since last year, the embassies have been supervised by deputy high commissioners, as chief of mission.

“Pakistan’s Cd’A was asked to ensure that no member of its diplomatic mission should indulge in activities inimical to India or behave in a manner incompatible with their diplomatic status,” said the press release.

The expulsion of diplomats has been a frequent occurrence in India and Pakistan’s fractious history. It is expected that Pakistan will also announce a tit-for-tat expulsion of a similar number of Indian diplomats in the coming days.

The last time there was been a decimation in staff strength at the Indian and Pakistani missions in each other’s countries was in late 2016.

Matters began with the arrest and expulsion of Pakistani high commission official Mehmood Akhtar. Just as in the latest incident, he had apparently posed as an Indian and produced a fake Aadhar card upon being apprehended after being observed receiving a document related to India’s national security at Delhi Zoo.

After Akhtar was expelled, Pakistan expelled an Indian high commission official, Surjeet Singh, within a few hours on the same day.

A couple of days later, Pakistan withdrew six of its diplomats who were named in Indian media reports that apparently quoted from Akhtar’s testimony during his interrogation.

Thereafter, the Pakistani media published reports containing the names and photographs of Indian high commission officials who they claimed were intelligence officials working under diplomatic cover. India had to withdraw eight diplomats from its high commission.

The Pakistan foreign office responded within an hour, claiming that the two staff members were “lifted by the Indian authorities today (May 31, 2020) on false and unsubstantiated charges”.

“They were, however, released on intervention by the high commission. We condemn the detention and torture as well as threatening and pressuring of the diplomatic officials to accept false charges,” said the statement of the Pakistani foreign ministry.

Top Medical Professionals Call Out Government’s ‘Incoherent’ COVID Policy, Lockdown

Had migrants been allowed to go home at the beginning of the epidemic when the disease spread was very low, the current situation could have been avoided, says a statement by a COVID-19 task force.

New Delhi: A group of leading medical experts have said in a report to the prime minister that the current situation in India with regard to COVID-19 cases could have been avoided had migrant workers been allowed to go home before a lockdown was imposed.

In a statement, the Indian Public Health Association (IPHA), Indian Association of Preventive and Social Medicine (IAPSM) and Indian Association of Epidemiologists (IAE) Joint COVID-19 Task Force says:

“The returning migrants are now taking the infection to each and every corner of the country, mostly to rural and peri-urban areas, in districts which had minimal cases and have relatively weak public health systems (including clinical care)”.

India’s nationwide lockdown from March 25 till May 30 has been one of the most “stringent” and yet COVID-19 cases have increased exponentially through this phase, that is, from 606 cases on March 25 to 1,38,845 on May 24, the experts said. As of May 31, the death toll due to COVID-19 has risen to over 5,000 and there are 1,73,763 in the country.

“This draconian lockdown is presumably in response to a modelling exercise from an influential institution which presented a ‘worst-case simulation’. The model had come up with an estimated 2.2 million deaths globally.

“Subsequent events have proved that the predictions of this model were way off the mark. Had the Government of India consulted epidemiologists who had better grasp of disease transmission dynamics compared to modelers, it would have perhaps been better served,” the report stated.

From limited information available in the public domain, the experts said it seems the government was primarily advised by clinicians and academic epidemiologists with “limited field training and skills”.

“Policy makers apparently relied overwhelmingly on general administrative bureaucrats. The engagement with expert technocrats in the areas of epidemiology, public health, preventive medicine and social scientists was limited,” reads the report.

According to the report, India is paying a heavy price, both in terms of humanitarian crisis and disease spread.

“The incoherent and often rapidly shifting strategies and policies, especially at the national level, are more a reflection of afterthought and catching up phenomenon on part of the policy makers rather than a well thought cogent strategy with an epidemiological basis,” they said.

The experts have recommended constituting a panel of inter-disciplinary public health and preventive health experts and social scientists at central, state and district levels to address both public health and humanitarian crises.

It has suggested that all data, including test results, should be made available in public domain for the research community (clinical, laboratory, public health and social sciences) to access, analyse and provide real-time context-specific solutions to control the pandemic.

“A Public Health Commission with task-specific Working Groups may be urgently constituted to provide real-time technical inputs to the government,” it suggested.

Highlighting that physical distancing norms need to be practiced to slow down the spread of infection, the experts said at the same time, enhanced social bonding measures need to be promoted to address mental health concerns of anxiety and lockdown.

They further recommended extensive surveillance for patients with Influenza like Illnesses (ILI) and Severe Acute Respiratory Illness (SARI) through clinical institutions (including private hospitals) and testing, tracing, tracking, and isolating with marked scaling up of diagnostic facilities.

Full text of the statement

Situation Analysis: The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic is a public health emergency with grave implications for the entire world. India as part of the global community has also been adversely impacted with a catastrophic ‘double burden’: 145,000+ cases and 4,000+ deaths, coupled with a humanitarian crisis that encompasses an estimated 114 million job losses (91 million daily wage earners and 17 million salary earners who have been laid off), across 271,000 factories and 65-70 million small and micro enterprises that have come to a halt.

The response of the Government of India after the first case on 30th January, 2020 blunted the rapid progress of the infection and the nation accepted near-total disruption of all facets of daily living. Clinical, epidemiological and laboratory knowledge for control of the novel corona virus indicate that humankind will have to “live with the virus” and operational strategies rapidly need to recalibrate from containment to mitigation. The emerging evidence unequivocally indicates that COVID-19 worsened the health inequities, and public health measures need to make that concern central. The global community is collaborating and sharing information to formulate a comprehensive, effective, efficient and sustainable strategy and plan of action to control this pandemic. At the same time each country and regions within the country have to adapt the larger general model to its own specifics.

Open and transparent data sharing with scientists, public health professionals and indeed the public at large, conspicuous by its absence till date, should be ensured at the earliest. This will strengthen pandemic control measures, build bottom-up consensus and build an ecosystem of engagement and trust.

India’s nationwide “lockdown” from March 25, 2020 till May 30, 2020 has been one of the most stringent; and yet COVID cases have increased exponentially through this phase, from 606 cases on March 25 to 138,845 on May 24. This draconian lockdown is presumably in response to a modeling exercise from an influential institution which was a ‘worst-case simulation’. The model had come up with an estimated 2.2 million deaths globally. Subsequent events have proved that the predictions of this model were way off the mark.

Had the Government of India consulted epidemiologists who had better grasp of disease transmission dynamics compared to modelers, it would have perhaps been better served. From the limited information available in the public domain, it seems that the government was primarily advised by clinicians and academic epidemiologists with limited field training and skills. Policy makers apparently relied overwhelmingly on general administrative bureaucrats. The engagement with expert technocrats in the areas of epidemiology, public health, preventive medicine and social scientists was limited. India is paying a heavy price both in terms of humanitarian crisis and disease spread. The incoherent and often rapidly shifting strategies and policies especially at the national level are more a reflection of “afterthought” and “catching up” phenomenon on part of the policy makers rather than a well thought cogent strategy with an epidemiologic basis.

Most COVD-19 infected persons are mostly without symptoms. Even if symptomatic, the symptoms are mild and not life threatening. Majority of the patients do not require hospitalization and can be treated at domiciliary level with a modified “enforced social distancing” imposed on the household. Had the migrant persons been allowed to go home at the beginning of the epidemic when the disease spread was very low, the current situation could have been avoided. The returning migrants are now taking infection to each and every corner of the country; mostly to rural and peri-urban areas, in districts with relatively weak public health systems (including clinical care) .

It is unrealistic to expect that COVID-19 pandemic can be eliminated at this stage given that community transmission is already well-established across large sections or sub-populations in the country. No vaccine or effective treatment is currently available or seems to be available in near future (there are a few promising candidates though). The expected benefit of this stringent nationwide lockdown was to spread out the disease over an extended period of time and effectively plan and manage so that the healthcare delivery system is not overwhelmed. This seems to have been achieved albeit after 4th lockdown with extraordinary inconvenience and disruption of the economy and life of the general public. The case fatality rate in India has been relatively on the lower side, and mostly limited to the high risk groups (elderly population, those with pre-existing co-morbidities etc.). However, the lockdown cannot be enforced indefinitely as the mortality attributable to the lockdown itself (primarily because of total shutdown of routine health services and livelihood disruption of nearly the entire bottom half of the Indian population) may overtake lives saved due to lockdown mediated slowing of COVID-19 progression.

Abundant scientific and evidence-based interventions are available to control the pandemic at state and district levels in India. These measures should be implemented while at the same time ensuring optimal provisions for the livelihood of the poor and marginalized. Simultaneously, provision of health care for all, especially children and women and those suffering from chronic conditions and emergencies requiring medical attention is an urgent imperative.

Recommendations

Representing a very wide community of public health academics, practitioners and researchers in India we recommend considering the following11point action plan during COVID-19 pandemic:

1. Constitute a panel of inter-disciplinary public health and preventive health experts and social scientists at central, state and district levels to address both public health and humanitarian crises.

2. Free sharing of data in public domain and Public Health Commission: All data including test results should be made available in public domain (unlinked anonymous) for the research community (clinical, laboratory, public health and social sciences) to access, analyze and provide real-time context-specific solutions to control the pandemic. A Public Health Commission with task-specific Working Groups may be urgently constituted to provide real-time technical inputs to the government. The opaqueness maintained by the Government of India as well as state governments in the context of data so far has been a serious impediment to independent research and appropriate response to the pandemic.

3. Lift lockdown, replace with cluster restrictions: The ongoing nationwide lockdown needs to be removed and replaced with cluster specified restrictions (based on epidemiological assessment); reasonable criteria and milestones for control of the current phase of the pandemic in the country should be set, taking into account that successive wave of cases is possible. The raison d’etre of the lockdown is health system preparedness; the government needs to come out with clear monitorable benchmarks to this effect.

4. Resumption of all the routine health services: It is of utmost importance that all routine health services at all level of (primary, secondary and tertiary) care be immediately started with due measures to ensure protection of HCWs. Ample evidence has emerged that the human cost of disruption of routine health services specially for terminally ill patients, those with life threatening catastrophic health events like myocardial infarctions, stroke, chronic infectious disease like TB and preventable measures like immunization have far outweighed the deaths due to COVID-19. The brunt of disruption of health services may even be higher in days to come.

5. Source reduction measures through increase of public awareness and practice of preventive measures: The most effective strategy for control of novel corona virus spread during all stages of transmission is source reduction strategy. Universal use of face mask (homemade and others), hand hygiene (washing with soap and water and hand sanitizers) and cough etiquette, should be adopted by all with special focus to high risk population.

6. Ensure physical distancing with social bonding, avoid social stigma: Physical distancing norms need to be practiced to slow down the spread of infection. At the same time enhanced social bonding measures need to be promoted to address mental health concerns of anxiety and lockdown. Stigma and discrimination in COVID-19 tend to be associated with specific population groups (such as religious groups or returnee migrants) even though not everyone in those groups is specifically at risk. Stigma can also occur after a person has been released from COVID-19 quarantine. Governments, media and local organizations need to be pro-active by making people aware and treating them with empathy and respect.

7. Sentinel and active surveillance: It is important to conduct extensive surveillance for Influenza like Illnesses (ILI) through ASHA/ANMs/MPWs, and Severe Acute Respiratory Illness (SARI) through clinical institutions (including private hospitals), daily reporting to identify geographic and temporal clustering of cases to trace transmission foci (hot spots / cluster events). This must be supported by trained epidemiologists from local medical colleges and public health institutions. In future use of already existing HIV serological surveillance platform could be a cost-effective way to do the serological surveillance and also provide an estimate of the burden and trend, needs of vaccine, and impact of other preventive strategies.

8. Test, track and isolate with marked scaling up of diagnostic facilities: India has significantly enhanced testing rates though some states continue to lag behind. Benchmarks based on population norms are essential to keep this key pandemic counter- measure on track. Some states have high numbers of backlogs; instituting standard turnaround time is equally crucial. Governments need to support free testing in private laboratories as well. As the number of (potential) contacts as well as returnee migrant populations continue to increase rapidly across the country, home quarantine need to be promoted and protocols followed with active participation and support from frontline health workers and local communities.

9. Strengthening Intensive Care Capacity: Intensive care is only to be given by the well trained adequately protected health care providers. Newer evidence is emerging that symptomatic and even SARI cases can be effectively managed with oxygen and other supportive measures. Makeshift (fangkang) hospitals are already being established in Mumbai, Maharashtra, and same may be built in other cities of India to cater to increase in number of patients during the peak of COVID-19.

10. Optimal PPE for frontline workers: Nosocomial infection of COVD-19 is a serious challenge affecting safety and morale of health care providers (HCP). This is also important mode of infection transmission amplification and acceleration once HCP become “super-spreaders”. Appropriate PPE must be provided to HCP to instill confidence and alternate teams identified to take care of attrition due to fatigue, exposure and quarantine. India has now enhanced capacity to produce PPEs and should continue to ramp up production.

11. Strengthening of public health system/institutions/discipline: The historic and systematic neglect of public health as a discipline and non-involvement of public health experts in policy making and strategy formulation has cost the nation enormously especially in the current pandemic. Rapid scaling up of public health (including medical care) — both services and research — should be done on a war footing with an allocation of 5% of GDP to health expenditure at center and state level.

We sign out on a positive but cautious note. Evidence based scientific and humanistic policies will help us in overcoming this calamity with minimal loss to human life, social structures and economies. Nature has once again reminded us of our tenuous situation in the wider universe. It is high time that humankind takes note of the warning signals and undertakes midcourse corrections urgently and now. The “One World One Health” approach should be central in ensuring optimal harmony amongst all humans and animals of the world based on principle of “Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam” (The entire world is one family). Being respectful and mindful of all animate and inanimate beings of this planet is the way forward in the post-COVID-19 world. Even in the face of the current once in a century humanitarian and health crisis of this proportion, if we do not sit up and take notice and bring about some fundamental changes to our life styles and also in policy making specially in health policy making, we are doomed to face the consequences of same and may see unprecedented human costs in present pandemic and more worryingly see an encore much sooner again.

The members of the IPHA, IAPSM, and IAE Joint COVID-19 Task Force are as follows: (in alphabetical order)

1. Dr. A. C. Dhariwal, Former Director, NVBDCP & NCDC, and Advisor NVBDCP, MoHFW, GoI
2. Dr Anil Kumar, President, IAE & Dy DGHS (Deafness), Nirman Bhawan, New Delhi
3. Dr. AM Kadri, Secretary, IAPSM
4. Dr. Chandrakant S. Pandav, Past President IPHA & IAPSM, former Professor & Head,
Centre for Community Medicine (CCM), AIIMS, New Delhi, and President, ICCIDD
5. Dr. D.C.S. Reddy, Former Professor & Head, Community Medicine, IMS, BHU
6. Dr. Farooq Ahmed, Former Director NEIGRIMS, and Pro VC KBN University
7. Dr. Kapil Yadav, Additional Professor, CCM, AIIMS, New Delhi
8. Dr. M. K. Sudarshan, Chief Editor, Indian Journal of Public Health (IJPH)
9. Dr. Puneet Misra, Past President, IAPSM & Professor, CCM, AIIMS, New Delhi
10. Dr. Rajesh Kumar, Former Professor & Head, PGIMER, Chandigarh
11. Dr. Rajib Dasgupta, Professor, Community Health, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New
Delhi
12. Dr. Sanghamitra Ghosh, Secretary General, IPHA, and CMO (SG) Ministry of Defence,
Kolcata
13. Dr. Sanjay K. Rai, National President, IPHA and Professor, CCM, AIIMS, New Delhi
14. Dr. Sanjay Zodpey, President, IAPSM and Vice President-Academics, Public Health
Foundation of India (PHFI), New Delhi
15. Dr. Sanjiv Kumar, Former Executive Director, NHSRC, and Chairman, Indian Academy
of Public Health (IAPH)
16. Dr. Shashi Kant, Past President IAPSM, and Professor & Head, CCM, AIIMS, New Delhi

Caste Diversity, Social Binding Has Helped Tamil Nadu Doctors Cope with COVID Challenge

By undermining the reservation system in health education, the government may undo the public healthcare system.

Till the onset of a pandemic, the public health system conjured up an image of medical institutions (ranging from primary health centres to medical colleges) that were both unclean and mediocre. It was meant for those who cannot otherwise afford health. The private health sector, on the other hand, was seen as a saviour of the Indian elite.

COVID-19 is an unfortunate event, yet I believe that it has enlightened us and steered us towards a debate on the merit and contributions of the private health sector in public health, as well as the dire necessity to save the ‘drowning‘ public health system.

Since day one of the lockdown in March, I have been a witness to how the entire public healthcare system has remarkably risen to the occasion in Tamil Nadu. From doctors to sanitary workers, frontline workers involved in handling the crisis have been working around the clock, often compromising their own health and safety, while private clinics and private hospitals remaining entirely shut. With increasing cases of COVID-19 in Gujarat, we see the government ordering the private health sector to open up medical institutions in Ahmedabad or face punishment.

The situation is so serious in Maharashtra that the government went a step ahead and has threatened to cancel the practicing licenses of private doctors who are not willing to work for COVID-19 patients in government hospitals. The examples only show a very distinct lack of social responsibility in the private health sector.

But on the contrary, the Tamil Nadu public health system, with nearly 18,000 doctors (about 12,000 working in rural areas) and lakhs of nurses and paramedics, has not received a single resignation letter. There have been no reports of frontline health workers abandoning their responsibilities, even when doctors, postgraduates and nurses were infected. This achievement cannot be trivialised as wanting financial remuneration. As a doctor myself, I believe the real factor that keeps members of the public health system together is a sort of social binding.

Also read: Across Tamil Nadu, Caste Violence Has Increased During the Lockdown, Say Activists

A social bind is not built in a day, but through decades, essentially due to provisions of caste-based reservations that led to the entry of first-generation graduates like me into medical colleges. I can say with certainty that the 12,000 doctors serving in the rural Tamil Nadu are mostly from backward, most backward and scheduled castes. The upper-caste representation in these places is small (except in city-bound medical colleges ).

Second, the most important factor is the provision of 50% reservation for government doctors in postgraduate education, thereby paving the way for career upgradation. It also makes a doctor work in the government sector till superannuation (as a compulsory bond till retirement exists for all government doctors in Tamil Nadu).

But the introduction of NEET as a sign of uniformity and the selection of so-called ‘meritorious’ students has become a stumbling block for first-generation students, and has made medical education a commodity for the urban elite irrespective of caste.

At this juncture, I find it reasonable to put forth that though Tamil Nadu has a rising incidence of COVID-19 due to multifactorial reasons, the case fatality rate (ratio of hospitalised patients to deaths due to COVID-19) is low when compared to all other states and this is only due to the service provided by doctors who have never written the NEET to prove their merit or capabilities. The onslaught of COVID-19 has very clearly established that NEET has never been and is no longer a measuring scale for merit. Continuing it any further will have dangerous repercussions for India’s health system of India.

Further, the Medical Council of India made an eminently unnecessary amendment which is actually beyond its jurisdiction. By this amendment, reservation for government doctors has to be given only in diploma seats and not in postgraduate degree seats, both in the all-India pool of seats and also in the seats governed by individual states.

This has been further complicated by the conversion of all diploma seats to degree seats last year, leading to the denial of entry to postgraduation courses for a government doctor working in rural areas. This has in turn made the government service less attractive and has doomed many careers. (Since they have to compete with those only studying in more luxurious settings, guided by expensive coaching centres.)

Also read: The History of Caste Has Lessons on the Dangers of Social Distancing

Secondly, the non-provision of OBC reservation in the all-India pool of seats (50 % of seats from every medical colleges given from the individual states) by the Central health ministry for the past nine years has led to the loss of postgraduation opportunities for nearly 2,500 OBC medical undergraduates every year throughout India.

By the non-implementation of both these reservations for government doctors in the postgraduate medical education after the introduction of the National Medical Commission (NMC), the state and Central government have gradually incapacitated the public health system even in states like Tamil Nadu and Kerala (considered the best performers). In the future, we might not even have a proper comprehensive public health system to handle a pandemic like COVID-19.

Given the immense contribution of the public health sector in handling a pandemic like this, the government must come forward to roll back all measures that would spell doom for the public health sector. Otherwise, the country will have to pay.

Dr Sakthirajan is a doctor in Tamil Nadu.

Army Rejects Purported Video of Eastern Ladakh Face-Off

“The contents of video being circulated are not authenticated. Attempt to link it with the situation on the Northern borders is mala fide,” the army said in a statement.

New Delhi: The Indian Army on Sunday rejected a video, which emerged on the social media, purportedly showing clashes between Chinese and Indian troops in eastern Ladakh.

“The contents of video being circulated are not authenticated. Attempt to link it with the situation on the Northern borders is mala fide,” the army said in a statement.

It said differences between the two sides are being addressed through interaction between military commanders following established protocols on management of border between the two countries.

The undated video purportedly shows clashes between Indian and Chinese troops in the Pangong Tso area in eastern Ladakh.

“Currently no violence is happening. Differences are being addressed through interaction between military commanders, guided by established protocols on management of borders between the two countries,” the Army said.

“We strongly condemn attempts to sensationalise issues impacting national security. The media is requested not to air visuals that are likely to vitiate the current situation on the borders,” it added.

Troops of India and China were engaged in a major standoff for over three weeks in Pangong Tso, Galwan Valley, Demchok and Daulat Beg Oldie in eastern Ladakh, in what is turning out to be the biggest confrontation between the two countries after the Doklam episode in 2017.

Also read: As Government Falters on Ladakh Stand-off With China, Trump Gets Chance to Say Howdy Modi

The situation deteriorated after around 250 Chinese and Indian soldiers were engaged in a violent face-off on the evening of May 5 in Pangong Tso which spilled over to the next day before the two sides agreed to “disengage”.

However, the standoff continued.

The trigger for the face-off was China”s stiff opposition to India laying a key road in the Finger area around the Pangong Tso besides construction of another road connecting the Darbuk-Shayok-Daulat Beg Oldie road in Galwan Valley.

Defence Minister Rajnath Singh on Saturday said bilateral talks were on at military and diplomatic levels with China to resolve the row.

Breaking Down the China-US Tussle for Global Order Amid COVID-19

These are challenging times for the US-dominated liberal global order, especially as China trumps up its diplomatic engagement.

Challenging US global dominance is not a cakewalk for China. Despite possessing material capabilities, China is yet to achieve widespread acceptance of its values to exercise influence consistently in the international system. Although China has gained many supporters, especially among developing countries, for controlling and containing the spread of COVID-19 in Wuhan, it has also earned quite a few detractors for its initial inaction.

China has been facing discord over its values and contours of its image, but its efforts to influence and direct the narrative around coronavirus has triggered vigorous response from the US.

However, China may still benefit from this confrontation, both in material and value terms: prompt restarting of the stalled economy shall accelerate its recovery and possibly help shape the trajectory of the global economy; and displaying the effectiveness of its non-liberal system is drawing the attention of many developing states.

Image building has been a chink in the Chinese armour. The recent Chinese PR campaign to deflect accusations against it has been viewed as aggressive and provocative, even dubbed as “Wolf Warrior” diplomacy. People’s Republic of China’s (PRC) information campaign has even been characterised as ‘rewriting history’. The Trump administration’s attempts to racially vilify China for the virus outbreak apparently provoked the counter offensive from China, once it had contained the virus at home. Image building is not just about unleashing a charm offensive, and it includes instruments to gate the negative images from flooding pages and screens. It is easier said than done, but the Chinese appear to be learning their lessons fast, in a tough way though.

Also read: Why India Won’t Be Able to Compete With China in the Post-COVID-19 World

China’s coronavirus containment strategies have attracted a great deal of criticism. Certainly, the initial response of the local authorities was to cover-up, and of the central authorities was tentative. But, the enormity of the situation forced the authorities to mobilise all the possible resources to control the coronavirus spread largely, and prevented it from causing further damage to its people and economy to an extent. The Wuhan lockdown afforded sufficient time to other states to understand the gravity and reduce the spread of the virus around the world. However, the American leadership was in denial at first and indecisive in its response. Besides, the US leadership destabilised the established, time-tested, mechanisms to respond appropriately, which led to inundating of the wards and mortuaries, in addition to consuming the economy.

China employing numerous surveillance and data collection technologies in its battle against COVID-19, which are generally considered invasive, has been placed under scrutiny. But, the US has already been under a high degree of surveillance, as a consequence of a plethora of anti-terror policies made in the wake of 9/11 events, and the explosion of information communication technologies in the last two decades. Moreover, other technologically capable states have developed many of those devices, and the less capable ones have imported them, whenever and wherever possible. Further, a majority of the Chinese public has shown no adverse reaction to increased social surveillance contrary to the Western perceptions.

Also read: India-China Border Dispute: Donald Trump Says US is ‘Ready, Willing and Able’ to Mediate

The calls for imposing sanctions against and seeking reparations from China for its supposed culpability, and the attempt to categorise its actions as a crime against humanity can only widen the schism between China and the US. Moreover, an endeavour to build a global coalition against China would be a challenge as it involves high-stakes, and any such initiative would vitiate global politics and render economic recovery more painful. The unpredictability of the Trump regime, the divided Europe, cautious Southeast Asia, and an ambiguous India, would complicate any such effort. Nonetheless, China’s acquiescence to the draft resolution probing the origin of the virus at the World Health Assembly (WHA) may help mitigate the hostilities and repair the damages caused by its pugnacious diplomacy.

Unlike during the 2004 tsunami disaster in Asia or the 2014 Ebola outbreak in Africa, the US neither showed signs of leadership nor willingness to fight the pandemic. This has afforded China additional space to demonstrate leadership in resolving shared global challenges through multilateral mechanisms and the provision of public goods.

China has engaged the ASEAN, and other regional groupings such as the Arab League, Central and Eastern European states with “17+1” mechanism, Shanghai Cooperation Organization’s (SCO) secretariat, and the ten Pacific Island states, in this endeavour. The Trump administration, on the other hand, froze the funding to the World Health Organization (WHO) at this critical juncture, which would have serious repercussions for countries in Africa and the Asia-Pacific, while China announced additional $30 million grant to the WHO in addition to the $20 million made earlier.

Further, China has been providing coronavirus test kits, masks, gloves, protective gears, and ventilators to over 120 countries, in addition to sharing doctors and healthcare professionals to 13 countries, which may have positive impact on China’s image. Moreover, to address the issue of faulty equipments, China has strengthened quality control mechanisms at the factories and initiated customs inspection of every shipment.

Also read: ‘Virus Situation Not Acceptable’: Trump Threatens New Tariffs on China

The coronavirus-ravaged global economy is in a pause, and the prospects look bleak. Yet, Chinese factories have already started bellowing post-virus containment. The Chinese economy is expected to grow by 1.2%, while the US economy is likely to contract by 5.9% in 2020.

In order to stem the declining demand and supplement disturbed supply chains, China has initiated reform measures. The new policy guidelines issued by the Communist Party Central Committee and State Council purports to let the market forces determine the distribution of land, labour, capital, technological knowledge, and data. If the reforms are carried out, it can unshackle renewed growth tapping unexploited potential in the 1.4 billion strong domestic market.

On the other hand, despite a $ 2.3 trillion financial package, domestic infighting over lifting of lockdowns, and inward looking, anti-free trade ideas like ‘America First’ of the present US administration leaves limited space for speedy recovery and generate fuel for growth. While the Two Sessions meetings, held on May 21-22, announced a stimulus package of $ 506 billion focusing on ‘new infrastructure’ such as 5G and new energy vehicles (NEV), which will help stabilise and accelerate the Chinese economy in the post-COVID-19 recovery phase compared to the US, and if proven effective, China will have the lever to move the global economy.

States always look for opportunities to increase their powers, whether they are liberal democracies or authoritarian governments. Now, states are redefining liberal norms in the guise of fighting coronavirus, which under normal circumstances would have invited backlash. Apart from the populist governments that emerged following the 2008 financial crisis, autocracies and mature democracies are exploiting this pandemic to appropriate more powers.

In the post-COVID-19 world, where states would be dealing with a great deal of socio, economic, and political problems that would require unconventional and unprecedented policy responses. In such a scenario, it is unlikely that states would give up those newly acquired gains, even if populist governments cease to be in power.

These are challenging times for the US dominated liberal global order. Its failure to adequately respond to coronavirus crisis sowed doubts about its governance capability, and left a dent on its image as a provider of global public goods. Its hostile campaign against China can lead to an undesirable New Cold War situation endangering the whole world. In fact, the aggressive selling of liberalism has underestimated the role of nationalism and other local identities.

The concerted Chinese response to the pandemic engendered more avenues in the global economic sphere and possibilities in political values. China being benevolent may be sufficient to the receivers of the largesse, but to be seen and acknowledged as one is equally important to China to exercise power and strengthen its leadership position. But, the jury is still out as to how China will exercise its “humane authority” in a Sino-centric order.

A.D. Gnanagurunathan has recently been a MOFA Visiting Scholar at the Department of Political Science, National Taiwan University, Taipei, Taiwan.

Assam: One Man Killed, Another Injured in Mob Attack in Jorhat District

The two victims were involved in a minor accident with two women who work at a tea garden, and were reportedly attacked by other workers.

New Delhi: In yet another mob lynching, a young man was killed in Assam’s Jorhat district while another was severely injured and is undergoing treatment at a local hospital.

The local police have so far arrested five persons in the case.

The incident took place on May 29 and come to light just days after a vegetable vendor lost his life due to severe beating by a group of five persons in the state’s Kamrup district. They attacked him after his bicycle hit a car that two of the accused were in.

A May 31 report in the Assamese news channel NewsLive said two young men – Debasish Gogoi and Aditya Das – were on a motorbike on May 29, returning from Gabharu Parbat, a tourist site near the Mariani area of the district. Their vehicle met with a minor accident near the Gabharu tea estate and hit two women belonging to the tea garden community. According to the report, around 50 people, said to be workers of the tea garden, gathered at the spot thereafter and began beating the young men.

However, speaking to the local news channel Prag News, Debasish’s father said there were a crowd of about 200 to 300 people. “On getting to know that my son was being beaten up, I and my daughter rushed in our car to the spot. I was not allowed to get out of the car by the mob, threatening to kill me too if I did. But my daughter went out and tried reaching her brother. They threatened to attack her too but she managed to reach him,” the father said. They thereafter rushed him and Aditya to the Jorhat civil hospital where he succumbed to injuries on May 31.

Adiya told NewsLive that the mob, aside from beating the two, also snatched their mobile phones.

Modi Once Stoked Public Fears About Coronavirus, Now He Doesn’t Know How to Dial Back

Deep down, he wants to fire all cylinders of the economy. The narrative of fear has to be transformed into one of hope. But how?

On the eve of the United States’s entry into World War II after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbour in 1941, President Roosevelt said, ‘The only thing we have to fear is fear itself’.

In contrast, Prime Minister Modi consciously sought to instil fear and panic when he announced a complete ban on people stepping out of their homes because of the coronavirus:

“If the situation is not handled in these 21 days, the country and your family could go back 21 years… Several families could get devastated for ever… This virus spreads like wildfire… There is no other method or way to escape Coronavirus (except social distancing)… Jaan hai to jahan hai… Carelessness of a few can put the entire country in jeopardy.”

The prime minister said this on March 24 when the total reported COVID-19 cases in India were 536. Today, nine weeks, the total number of infections is around 1,80,000 cases and rising at the rate of about 6,000+ per day.

From June 1, the lockdown which began on March 25 will end everywhere across India except in the ‘containment zones. The handful of restrictions which remain – on malls, places of worship – will be lifted on June 8. So what is the justification for this substantial relaxation of the lockdown – including of social distancing – when the fire is still raging?

That is precisely what the Supreme Court observed on May 25 while rejecting the government’s and Directorate General of Civil Aviation’s submission on keeping the middle seat of aircrafts occupied for all future flights:

“Outside, there should be a social distancing of at least six feet, and inside you’re eliminating even middle seat difference. Shoulder to shoulder seating is dangerous and against the government’s own norms.”

Disagreeing with solicitor general Tushar Mehta, the bench observed that the government should worry more about the health of citizens than the health of commercial airlines. This is the response that Modi has got for his first big concrete step to restart the economic engine through air transportation.

Also read: Govt Should Worry About Citizens’ Health, Not Health of Commercial Airlines: SC

But more was to follow. After an initial carte blanche to the Modi government on the migrants issue in April, the Supreme Court – somewhat angry after having been embarrassed by high courts and criticised in social media – took suo motu notice of inhuman condition of migrants fleeing COVID-infested metropolises which had no work for them in the lockdown.

On May 26, a three-judge bench observed that media reports had been continuously showing the unfortunate and miserable conditions of migrant labourers travelling on foot and bicycles for long distances.

A migrant worker and her child wait to be screened for COVID-19 symptoms before boarding a bus from east Delhi to UP. Photo: PTI

It observed that migrants have also been complaining of not being provided food and water by the administration at places where they were stranded or on the highways from which they had proceeded, and that “this section of the society needs succour and help” by the governments concerned.

In short, the court was telling the Modi government to address the very crisis of life and death that was alluded to by the prime minister in his addresses to the nation.

Slowly but surely, Modi is realising that it is not easy to retreat so early from the fear and panic that was injected so forcefully across India just the other day by none other than himself.

He cannot tell the Supreme Courts the naked truth so quickly.

The prime minister knows that the virus spreads rapidly and that the attempt to halt or significantly arrest its spread has been, to a large extent, failed.

His governmenthas no face to tell the court that in two months India has conducted only 3 million tests, which is not even 1% of the population, when the US (15 million tests) and some European countries like Russia (9 million tests) have tested between 2-10% of their population.

Also read: COVID-19: Is India Really Doing ‘Better’ than Other Countries?

It cannot tell the Supreme Court that the government does not know where the spread is, and that, consequently, it cannot do contact tracing for the bulk of cases that are unreported.

It cannot say on affidavit that according to the ICMR itself, 80% of the spread is through asymptomatic carriers which means that there are probably about 7,50,000 COVID-19 cases according to the government’s own estimates.

And most importantly, it cannot just yet tell the court that only senior citizens with serious co-morbidities are really at risk and need isolation till a treatment or vaccine is found, and that the large mass of healthy people have nothing to fear and could safely resume work.

Not surprisingly, the SG could only generally state that the government was controlling the virus through testing and quarantine, when the fact is that testing has been woefully deficient. Testing appears to have been put on the back burner because full-scale testing might not only catapult India to among the worst in the world in terms of total cases, but may also spread panic.

Modi is not in control of the situation. He does not know about the exact spread of the virus and how it could disrupt the civic and economic activity in the country. The opening of air transport is a desperate move to restart the economy anyhow despite the Central government’s inability to gauge or control the spread of the virus.

For the first time since he became PM in 2014, Modi has his back to the wall, and his inability to manage health related disasters is clearly evident. He must resist any temptation to conceal the spread of the virus by slowing down testing.

Also read: As the First Year of Modi 2.0 Ends, It’s Clear that Democracy Has Been Quarantined

For Modi, this is a new battle. There is no Pakistan element on which he can brandish his ‘fitrat’ of “ghar mein ghus ke maarenge”. There is no communal element that he can exploit directly or indirectly. Nor is this about the Gandhis or about “Congress-mukt Bharat”.

It’s not about kaamdaar chaiwala against naamdar Rahul Gandhi, a working class tea seller versus a dynast. Modi is up against a virus – and his own assessment of the virus and how to deal with it, as broadcast by him on March 24 and April 14.

Deep down, Modi wants to fire all cylinders of the economy. The narrative of fear has to be transformed into one of hope. But how? He needs a new script and a tweak in his oratory. He knows what Adolf Hitler said in the preface to Mein Kampf – that ‘men are won over less by the written than by the spoken word, that every great movement on this earth owes its growth to great oratory and not to great writers”. But what great oratory can he produce now?

In these times of COVID-19, Modi needs oratory like Martin Luther King Jr’s, ‘I have a dream’ or Nehru’s ‘Tryst with destiny’. He also needs to match it with action like large scale testing, contact tracing and treatment, however damaging the resultant image may be. Speeches like the ‘56 inch ka seena’, or the ‘shamshan kabristan’ speech to win Uttar Pradesh elections or the speech in Parliament in 2014 on MNREGA to humiliate the Gandhis will no longer cut any ice. Why? Because the virus directly affects the people of India.

Yes, people may question his decisions and their effect on them but so be it. Unlike 1930s Germany, we are a democracy, though not so vibrant, with a functioning, if not an ideal judiciary, and a noisy social media (even if big media is largely silent) to compel the Modi government to be at least somewhat accountable.

Rahul Singh is a former civil servant who retired from the Ministry of Defence, Government of India.

Durga Puja Washed Out for Kolkata’s Idol Makers

The artisans of Kumartuli could only watch as their raw materials literally went down the drain.

Kolkata: The broken tin roof of a two-storey studio rattles precariously in the strong wind, threatening to fall at any moment into the narrow alley in Kumartuli, the hub of idol-making workshops in Kolkata. There are many such damaged roofs in the area; only their bamboo skeletons stretch up to the sky.

The super-cyclone Amphan, which razed parts of West Bengal, was traumatising for the artisan sand labourers of Kumartuli, whose source of livelihood – clay – was literally washed away by the rain.

Damaged idol stores.

“The entire area was waterlogged. Though the water drained away after some time, nearly all the studios were flooded. Idols had toppled onto one another and some had dissolved. All our clay was washed away. The economic damage is incomprehensible,” says Bishwanath Pal, a studio owner.

Disfigured idols, some with dissolved faces, others with peels of clay hanging off them, line the alleys of the neighbourhood. They are irreparably damaged: the straw stuffing that forms the base of the idol has been revealed. It had taken the idol-makers weeks of work to apply the two layers of clay that give the idols their character. It took the cyclone a few hours to wash that hard work away.

Many idols had already been sculpted. Only paint jobs remained. Now they will be have to redone from scratch, says Mala Pal, who specialises in small idols for households. “Some completed idols were stored in the second story of our studio. During the storm, the roof collapsed and water gushed in. All those idols dissolved,” she said.

Some of the studios had been closed before the cyclone hit; their owners had left for their villages when lockdown was announced. Their unfinished handiwork – straw figurines on bamboo skeletons – are piled up in front of padlocked doors.

The lockdown has hit the artisans hard. Some of them are without work because many orders have been cancelled, even for West Bengal’s biggest Hindu festival, Durga Puja. Unable to provide idols even for small religious festivals like Annapurna Puja during the lockdown period, they have been minus any income for months. Now the damage caused by the cyclone has set them back by weeks.

Also read: After Amphan: As Iconic College Street Goes Under, Kolkata Mourns a Way of Life

“Kumartuli remains but its soul is lost,” says senior artisan Dilip Pal. “We need economic help to help us get back on our feet. Clay runs in our blood. If we can work, we’ll survive. Save our art by saving us. Only then will you save the local culture.”

A damaged idol.

Given the double blow of the lockdown and the cyclone, the Kumartuli artisans worry that festivities for Durga Puja might not take place this autumn. “We start work for Durga Puja from Poila Baisakh (Bengali new year in mid-April), but this year, due to the pandemic, everything stopped,” says Mintu Pal, a studio owner. “Very few orders have come but we have not given up hope. We assume that neighbourhood festivities and pujas at home will take place even on a small scale. We will know one way or another on the day of the Rath Yatra (June 23) when advance orders usually come in.”

Also read: ‘Tiger Widows’ in Sunderbans Reel Under Triple Whammy of Big Cats, Lockdown, Amphan

Adding to the workers’ uncertainty is the lack of information on whether Lockdown 4 will extend to Lockdown 5. “Some advance orders are coming in, but I’m not making any promises to customers,” says celebrated woman artisan China Pal. “Even though the idols being ordered are small, their structures are big. If the lockdown is implemented again, it will be difficult to store them.”

A damaged roof.

Melted idols.

To help themselves get through this hard time, the artisans and studio owners of Kumartuli have combined their resources to set up two communal kitchens, each of which provides 100 people with their daily meals.

They have also received some help from a city-based tour operator called Calcutta Capsule, which conducts tours of Kumartuli throughout the year. Calcutta Capsule has been collecting funds to support the artisans under the #CareForKumartuli initiative. In the first phase, it distributed essential ration packets containing rice, aata, potatoes, soyabean, mustard oil, turmeric and puffed rice as well as tarpaulin covers and a little cash to 150 artisans. It hopes to conduct more such drives.

Ration distribution drive by Calcutta Capsule.

The mood, though, is of dejection. “What are we going to do? Idols have been prepared, but nobody comes to take them,” says an old man, his head in his hands.

Shaswata Kundu Chaudhuri is a freelance journalist in Kolkata.

PM-CARES Fund ‘Not a Public Authority’, Doesn’t Fall Under RTI Act: PMO

The PMO has rejected an RTI application seeking details of the PM CARES Fund, stating that the fund is not a public authority under the Act.

New Delhi: The Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) has clarified that the PM-CARES Fund, which has so far attracted a huge sum of donations to handle the challenges arising from the COVID-19 crisis, is not a public authority. This, even though the PM is the ex-officio chairman of the trust, and three cabinet ministers are its trustees.

In a reply to an RTI filed on April 1 by Harsha Kandukuri, a student of the Azim Premji University, Bangalore, the PMO stated that the Fund is not a public authority under section 2 (h) of the Right to Information Act, 2005, and therefore it won’t be able to divulge information sought in the application.

The fund – Prime Minister’s Citizen Assistance and Relief in Emergency Situations Fund –was created on March 28 to deal with any emergency posed by the COVID-19 pandemic. According to news reports, while PM Narendra Modi would be its ex-officio chairman, its trustees were to be Union home minister Amit Shah, defence minister Rajnath Singh and finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman.

The opposition had questioned the need for a creation of the Fund as the PM’s National Relief Fund (PMNRF) already exists to receive donations for such emergencies.

Also read: PMO Refuses to Give Details on PM-CARES, Citing Controversial SC Statement

Looking at the composition of the trust members of PM Cares Fund, Kandukuri had sought copies of the trust deed and all government orders, circulars and notifications related to its creation and functioning. By then, various ministries and government departments had issued circulars to its employees to contribute one day’s salary to the Fund. The donation could be paid between this May to next March, covering the entire fiscal year.

In some cases, the donations raised voluntarily for PMNRF too have been directed to the PM-CARES Fund by the administration.

The PM-CARES Fund has reportedly received Rs 6,500 crore in the first week of its launch. The total donation received so far is a whopping Rs 10,000 crore. A news report in The Print quoted government officials as saying, “The bulk of the contribution comes from corporate, the public sector undertakings and central ministries and departments. The central public sector enterprises under the ministries of power and new and renewable energy had contributed Rs 925 crore by April 3, while public sector oil companies including ONGC, IOC, Bharat Petroleum had contributed over Rs 1,000 crore.”

However, in reply to his RTI, the PMO said it is not a public authority, adding, “However, relevant information in respect of PM-CARES Fund may be seen on the website pmcares.gov.in.”

As per the RTI Act, a public authority means any authority, body or institution of self-government established or constituted a)by or under the constitution; b) by any other law made by parliament; c) by any other law made by the state legislature and d) by notification issued or order made by the appropriate government. It also includes “body owned, controlled or substantially financed; non-governmental organisation substantially financed directly or indirectly by funds provided by the appropriate government”.

Also read: PM CARES and the Paradox of Mandatory Contributions

Speaking to LiveLaw, Kandukuri said he would file a statutory appeal against the decision of the PMO.

“By denying PM Cares Fund the status of ‘public authority’, it is only reasonable to infer that it is not controlled by the Government. If that is the case, who is controlling it? The name, the composition of the trust, control, usage of emblem, government domain name everything signifies that it is a public authority. By simply ruling that it is not a public authority and denying the application on RTI Act, the government has constructed walls of secrecy around it. This is not about lack of transparency and denying the application of the RTI Act to the fund, we should also be worried about how the fund is being operated. We do not know the decision making process of the trust and safeguards available, so that the fund is not misused. For a trust which is created and run by four cabinet ministers in their ex-officio capacities, denying the status of ‘public authority’ is a big blow to transparency and not to mention our democratic values,” Kandukuri told the legal news site.

He had sought reply from the PMO on 12 points regarding the Fund.

Earlier, the Comptroller and Auditor General’s office had clarified to the NDTV that it wouldn’t audit PM-CARES Fund as it is “a charitable organisation” and “based on donations from individuals and organisations”. The PMNRF too is not audited by CAG but by an independent auditor outside of the government.

In 2018, a division bench of the Delhi high court was split on the issue of whether PMNRF is a public authority under the RTI Act and is liable to disclosure of information to applicants. While Justice Ravindra Bhat felt it was a public authority, Justice Sunil Gaur differed. The matter was thereafter forwarded to the acting chief justice of the HC for an opinion. The issue is still pending.

KCR’s Daughter’s Entry in State Politics May Spark Succession War: Analysts

Kalvakuntla Kavitha’s brother is already the party’s No. 2 and her cousin has mass support.

Hyderabad: If Kalvakuntla Kavitha, daughter of Telangana chief minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao, wins the council by-elections that will be held when the lockdown is eased, she will add a fresh dimension to the succession politics within the KCR family.

The Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) chief had cleared Kavitha’s nomination for the council by-election scheduled for April 7 to the state legislative council under the Nizamabad Local Authorities’ Constituency (LAC) before the lockdown. It appears that he is keen to have his daughter practice her politics within the state because he selected Congress party defector K.R. Suresh Reddy from his party for a seat in the Rajya Sabha.

The council by-election is a sure victory for the TRS nominee, given the number of seats the party had won in the local bodies’ elections. The TRS together with its ally, the All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen, has more than 500 seats out of a possible 830 in the constituency. Members of the Mandal Parishad Territorial Constituency (MPTC), the Zilla Parishad Territorial Constituency (ZPTC), councillors in towns and corporators in cities are electors in the LAC.

Three MLCs, Bhoopathi Reddy representing the Nizamabad LAC, Yadav Reddy (under the MLA quota) and Ramulu Naik (under the governor quota), had defected from the TRS to the Congress before the state elections in 2018. Since they did not give up their memberships in the council, they were disqualified under the anti-defection law. Bhoopathi Reddy challenged his disqualification in the high court. In July 2019, the court upheld the action of the legislative council speaker, which made a by-election for the Nizamabad LAC necessary.

Also read: Jagan Reddy’s Flip Flop on NRC-CAA May Come at a Heavy Political Cost

Kavitha had worked in Delhi as the first woman MP from the country’s youngest state from 2014-19. However, she failed to retain her Nizamabad Lok Sabha seat despite her father’s support. Since her defeat to BJP candidate Aravind Dharmapuri, the 42-year-old leader, known for her feistiness during the Telangana statehood movement, has been temporarily out of politics.

Who is No. 2?

Immediately after the state elections in December, KCR created the position of ‘working president’ in the TRS and sought to place his tech-savvy son K.T. Rama Rao as the party’s No. 2. This made his position on leadership succession very clear. He was apparently in a hurry to do this for two reasons.

One, he sought to be either king or king-maker in national politics in anticipation of a hung parliament in the April-May 2019 national elections. Two, to keep the party leadership within the immediate family, he needed to block his nephew, T. Harish Rao, who is considered a popular and down-to-earth leader with strong roots in the statehood movement.

Telangana chief minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao. Photo: Facebook/KCR

The TRS patriarch strove to float a Federal Front as a third alternative to the NDA and the Congress-led UPA by roping in regional satraps like Deve Gowda with his Janata Dal (Secular) party in Karnataka and M. Karunanidhi and his Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam in Tamil Nadu. However, when the NDA won a clear victory in the election, KCR’s Federal Front failed to come together.

With Kavitha’s entry into the state legislature, political analyst Yedama Sammi Reddy foresees a succession war within the KCR family. Kavitha will expect a post in her father’s cabinet and a valuable portfolio, just like her brother and her cousin. In 2018, KCR had also placed his sister-in-law’s son, Joginapally Santosh Kumar, in the Rajya Sabha.

What she needs

Kavitha needs a key role in the state government to keep her Nizamabad constituency together. She had built a strong army of followers under the Telangana Jagruti, a non-profit cultural outfit that helped her win the Nizamabad Lok Sabha seat in 2014. When she lost her seat in 2019, her followers scattered and the TRS accused the Congress and the BJP of having come together despite their conflicting ideologies to defeat Kavitha.

Because of this, Kavitha is going all out to win the council election. She has drawn sharp criticism from several quarters for running a camp with her supporters in violation of the lockdown guidelines. The TRS is also alleged to have encouraged defections from the BJP and the Congress in the Nizamabad LAC, regardless of the fact that its numbers there are more than enough for Kavitha’s victory.

Also read: Telangana: Home Demolished for Reporting on MLA’s Birthday Party, Alleges Journalist

When Kavitha stood for election in the 2019 national polls, Chandrasekhar Rao had pulled into the TRS former minister Mandava Venkateswara Rao from the TDP and former assembly speaker in united Andhra Pradesh K.R. Suresh Reddy of the Congress, both of whom have followings of considerable size in Nizamabad. Despite that, Kavitha lost the election.

Political commentator Raka Sudhakar says that given her “backdoor” entry, Kavitha is unlikely to have much say in the KCR family’s succession politics. As an MP, she had caused a rift within the TRS when she sought to have D. Srinivas, her fellow party member and Rajya Sabha MP, sacked, thus angering his Munnuru Kapu community. This act led to the emergence of Srinivas’s son Aravind as her BJP rival for the Nizamabad seat, which she lost.