Month: June 2021

China’s Attempts to Alter Status Quo in Ladakh Disturbed Peace: Foreign Secretary

“An early completion of the disengagement process could lead to the de-escalation of forces in Eastern Ladakh, which would hopefully lead to restoration of peace…” Harsh Vardhan Shringla said.

New Delhi: China’s attempts over the last year to unilaterally alter the status quo in Ladakh were in violation of bilateral agreements and inevitably impacted the development of ties, foreign secretary Harsh Vardhan Shringla said on Wednesday and noted that early completion of the disengagement process could lead to the de-escalation of forces there.

Delivering a talk on “Global Rebalancing and India’s Foreign Policy” organised by the Vivekananda International Foundation, he said India’s relations with major powers have attained comprehensive strategic levels while maintaining strategic autonomy.

“We have carefully tended our relationship with the United States. It is an exciting and forward-looking partnership. India and the United States have also partnered with Japan and Australia in another forward looking partnership,” he said in a reference to the QUAD grouping.

Noting that the rise of China and India’s proximity brings its own implications, Shringla said Chinese attempts over the last year to unilaterally alter the status quo in Ladakh have “seriously disturbed” peace and tranquillity in the border areas.

“These acts are in violation of our bilateral agreements and have inevitably impacted the development of the bilateral relationship. We have nevertheless maintained dialogue to peacefully resolve the situation,” he said.

“An early completion of the disengagement process could lead to the de-escalation of forces in Eastern Ladakh, which would hopefully lead to restoration of peace and tranquillity in the border areas and facilitate overall progress in the bilateral relationship,” he said.

India and China were locked in a military standoff at multiple friction points in eastern Ladakh since early May last year. However, the two sides completed the withdrawal of troops and weapons from the North and South banks of Pangong lake in February following a series of military and diplomatic talks.

The two sides are now engaged in talks to extend the disengagement process to the remaining friction points.

India has been particularly pressing for disengagement of troops in Hot Springs, Gogra and Depsang.

According to military officials, each side currently has around 50,000 to 60,000 troops along the LAC in the sensitive high altitude sector.

There was no visible forward movement in disengagement of troops in the remaining friction points as the Chinese side did not show flexibility in their approach to this issue at the 11th round of military talks.

In his remarks, Shringla also said India has an enduring friendship with Russia and that friendship continues to be strengthened.

“We will give particular attention to building a 21st century relationship with Europe and a new and transformational partnership with a United Kingdom that has just exited the EU,” he said.

Noting that India’s engagement with Africa has been reinvigorated, Shringla said this is reflected in the stepped up exchanges at the political level and enhanced economic engagement, including through India’s Lines of Credit.

“We are also committed to intensifying and deepening our engagement with the Global South,” he said.

As part of the Think West policy, relations with Gulf countries have acquired new dimensions in the last few years, he noted.

“We also remain committed multilateralists and believe that human centric globalization must underlie the reformed multilateralism that will inevitably arise in a post-pandemic world,” Shringla said.

Pointing out that India is currently in the UN Security Council for a non-permanent tenure, he said India’s priorities in the Security Council include working to bring innovating and inclusive solutions to foster development; pursuing concrete action for effective response to terrorism; reforming multilateral systems; bringing a comprehensive approach to international peace and security; and promoting technology with a human touch as a driver of solutions.

Asserting that Indian diplomacy for this era is based on five pillars, Shringla said the first pillar is that it is Indian in thought.

He said the second pillar of Indian diplomacy is its multipolar focus and asserted that India places its Neighbourhood First, “we Act East and we Think West and we have revitalized our approach to these policies”.

The third pillar of India diplomacy is its actions as an international force multiplier for the government, he said and also highlighted how India helped several countries in the early days of the Covid pandemic by providing essential medicines, vaccines and other Covid-related assistance.

“This generated immense goodwill for us and was reflected in the support and assistance we received from our partner countries during the second wave. We will continue to share our resources, experience and expertise with others, to the best of our abilities,” Shringla asserted.

The fourth pillar of Indian diplomacy is to be a force for global good and the fifth pillar of Indian diplomacy looks to the future, he said.

“Our efforts at rebalancing include our endeavour to participate in the search for solutions to common problems,” he said.

Shringla also said that India is an open society and a democracy, and asserted that these were values that will remain at the heart of Indian diplomacy.

“Diplomatic strategies are similar. They do not lend themselves to neat and tidy categorization of problems and solutions. They require constant adjustments and course corrections,” he said.

“It is possible, however, to point the ship of state in a broad direction and I have attempted to describe that direction. We will certainly face turbulence. As and when it happens, we will be able to find our bearings from our values and our aspirations and our desire to not only contribute to solving the problems of today but to build the world of tomorrow,” the foreign secretary said.

India Asks Maldives to Act Against ‘Malicious’ Media Reports Targeting High Commission Staff

“These attacks are motivated, malicious and increasingly personal,” wrote the Indian high commission in Malé on local media reports.

New Delhi: India’s high commission in Malé has asked the Maldivian government to take steps to protect the high commissioner and diplomatic personnel from “malicious” and “personal” articles in the local media.

A note verbale from the Indian high commission to the Maldivian foreign ministry, dated June 24, was published in the Maldivian media on Wednesday.

In the letter, whose authenticity has been confirmed by The Wire, India complained about  “recurring articles and social media posts attacking the dignity of the High Commission, the Head of the Mission, and members of the diplomatic staff by certain sections of the local media”.

“These attacks are motivated, malicious and increasingly personal,” wrote the Indian high commission.

It requested the Maldivian government to ensure the protection of India’s diplomats to  “prevent any attack on his/their person, freedom and dignity, and prevent any disturbances to the peace of the Mission or impairment of its dignity in accordance with relevant articles of the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations (1961)”.

Besides, the high commission also called for action “in accordance with International Law and Maldivian Law, against the perpetrators for these gross violations of the Vienna Convention”.

The diplomatic missive further noted that the repeated attacks through the articles and social media posts are “attempts to incite hatred and violence against India, the High Commission and members of its diplomatic staff”.

Quoting from the Vienna convention, the letter referred to Article 29 which stated that the receiving state will treat a diplomatic personal with “due respect and shall take all appropriate steps to prevent any attack on his person, freedom or dignity”.

It also referred to the preamble of the Vienna convention which stated that the purpose of these privileges “was not to benefit individuals but to ensure the efficient performance of the functions of diplomatic missions as representing States”.

The letter argued that the “repeated attacks on the dignity” of India’s diplomatic staff can impact the “efficient performance of the functions” of the high commission.

Asserting that the specified articles were harmful, the high commission told the foreign ministry that these could “damage the time-tested and mutually beneficial bilateral relations between India and the Maldives”.

With relations between India and Maldives having improved under Ibrahim Solih government, the opposition has criticised any India-related projects and developments as a way to attack the ruling party.  The opposition has also begun an ‘India Out” campaign over alleged Indian military presence from last year, which had led to reports of rising anti-Indian sentiment in the strategic Indian ocean archipelago nation.

What Jacob Zuma’s Sentencing Means for South Africa

The court has, indeed, become very wise to Zuma’s tactics over the years.

South Africa’s Constitutional Court has found former president Jacob Zuma guilty of contempt of court and sentenced him to 15 months’ imprisonment.

Clearly, this is a momentous, historic verdict, with profound legal and constitutional implications, and one that will have political reverberations. It will strengthen the hand of reform-minded President Cyril Ramaphosa, who is struggling to rebuild state institutions hollowed out during Zuma’s nine-year rule, which ended in early 2018. The judgment fiercely makes the case for accountability over impunity. It serves to remind all South Africans that no one is above the law.

The ground-breaking judgment was read out by Acting Chief Justice Sisi Khampepe, who began with these words:

It is indeed the lofty and lonely work of the Judiciary, impervious to public commentary and political rhetoric, to uphold, protect and apply the Constitution and the law at any and all costs.

Never before has the Constitutional Court passed a custodial sentence, still less on a former democratically elected president.

This was one of several choices that the court had to make.

Weighty matters

The first question – whether there had been contempt of court – was straightforward to answer: Zuma had chosen not to contest the proceedings and had declined to offer any justification or denial of his decision to defy the order of the same court earlier this year. In that decision it held that he should appear before the Zondo Commission, the judicial inquiry into state capture and corruption in the country.

The commission’s legal team had come up with a strategy that, for once, outwitted Zuma. For almost two decades, Zuma has benefited from the strength of South Africa’s rule of law with his so-called “Stalingrad strategy” – taking every legal point and appealing every judgment against him.

Instead of going to a lower court, as would be customary in contempt of court proceedings, the Zondo Commission went directly to the Constitutional Court. The court accepted jurisdiction on the basis that it was its order that he was defying and because of the exceptional and urgent circumstances.

The public had an interest in having Zuma give evidence at the commission and respond to the grave allegations of corruption that have been made against him from his nine years in office. He ascended to the high office in May 2009 and was ousted from power by Ramaphosa following the latter’s election as president of the governing African National Congress in December 2017.

The consequence of the decision of the Constitutional Court to accept jurisdiction was that Zuma, having nowhere to appeal to, as it is the apex court, was bound to accept its ruling.

He must now present himself to his local police station within five days.

For the majority of seven justices, Khampepe found that, although the case had exceptional features – the fact that it involves a former president, with ongoing duties to respect and protect the constitution – he was not being treated exceptionally, as the minority judgment penned by two justices (Leona Theron and Chris Jafta) held.

The second, weightier decision for the court to take was whether to pass a coercive or punitive sentence. The former would, for example, have suspended the sentence provided that Zuma appear before the Zondo Commission; the latter would simply punish the contempt of court.

On this point, both the majority and minority judgments accepted that it would be futile and inappropriate to pass a coercive sentence because Zuma had made it clear that he would not appear in front of the commission.

This court is not “naive”, Justice Khampepe wrote:

I do not think this Court should be so naïve as to hope for his compliance with that order. Indeed, it defies logic to believe that a suspended sentence, which affords Mr Zuma the option to attend, would have any effect other than to prolong his defiance and to signal dangerously that impunity is to be enjoyed by those who defy court orders.

The court has, indeed, become very wise to Zuma’s tactics over the years.

The majority of the judges held that Zuma’s public outbursts before and after the contempt proceedings had been brought, in which he attacked the honesty of the judges of the Constitutional Court and impugned the integrity of the rule of law, should be taken into account when determining the punishment.

For their part, the minority held that these considerations were extraneous to the core contempt matter. The minority judgment further argued that to send Zuma to prison without a criminal standard trial was to infringe his fair trial rights contained in section 35 of the constitution.

The majority rejected this argument on the basis that since he was not a criminal defendant – contempt proceedings are civil proceedings not criminal – there could be no breach of a right that is not held.

In passing sentence, the majority judgment referred extensively to the “calculated and insidious” attacks on the rule of law by Zuma. Again, the final paragraph of the substantive part of Khampepe’s judgment was sweeping:

Quantifying Mr Zuma’s egregious conduct is an impossible task. So, I am compelled to ask the question: what will it take for the punishment imposed on Mr Zuma to vindicate this Court’s authority and the rule of law? In other words, the focus must be on what kind of sentence will demonstrate that orders made by a court must be obeyed and, to Mr Zuma, that his contempt and contumacy is rebukeable in the strongest sense. With this in mind then, I order an unsuspended sentence of imprisonment of 15 months. I do so in the knowledge that this cannot properly capture the damage that Mr Zuma has done to the dignity and integrity of the judicial system of a democratic and constitutional nation. He owes this sentence in respect of violating not only this Court, nor even just the sanctity of the Judiciary, but to the nation he once promised to lead and to the Constitution he once vowed to uphold.

This was a passionate as well as eloquent defence of the constitution and the rule of law. Immediately afterwards, Mzwanele Manyi, the spokesman for the Zuma Foundation, described it as “emotional”.

But, but for once, Zuma has run out of legal runway and must now face the consequences of his action.

A compelling narrative

South Africa has many problems, and inter-locking fiscal, economic and health crises. But underestimate the strength of its rule of law and the independence of its judiciary at your peril – as Zuma has now discovered.

There is something sad and tragic about his steady but inexorable fall from grace – a motif for the country, in one sense. And yet there is something so high-minded and noble about how the country’s constitution has prevailed over his abuse of power – a far more compelling narrative.The Conversation

Richard Calland is Associate Professor in Public Law, University of Cape Town.

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

Watch | Yes, Fast Fashion Is Problematic. But What Are the Alternatives?

Exorbitant pricing of sustainable fabrics is still a big hurdle in the developing world.

In the third and final episode of The Wire‘s series in partnership with The ReFashion Hub, we try to break down why solutions to put checks on water-polluting textile industries in India have failed. By taking the example of another textile hub – Tiruppur – we explain how the lack of policy regulation and shoddy implementation has affected lives.

We also take a look at how sustainable fashion brands are trying to make difference, but how the exorbitant pricing of sustainable fabrics is still a big hurdle in the developing world.

You’ve tuned to a three-part series on how fast-fashion clothing is harming day-to-day lives in the developing world. The production of this series has been made possible by The ReFashion Hub. In this series, we explain what is fast-fashion, why you may really not need those sweatshirt shorts you just ordered from an online store, and what each of us can do to clean our fashion footprint in the world. Watch parts one and two.

Narrator: Bahar Dutt
Script writers: Shreya Kalra and Naomi Barton
Producer: Pawanjot Kaur
Video editor and animator: Pawan Raghwani
Science editor: Vasudevan Mukunth

Delhi Riots: Court Grants Bail to Seven Murder Accused, Says Can’t Jail Them till End of Trial

The case pertains to alleged murder of one Vinod Kumar in Delhi’s Brahmpuri area during the communal riots on February 24 last year.

New Delhi: A Delhi court on Wednesday granted bail to seven accused in a murder case related to the Northeast Delhi violence, saying they cannot be incarcerated till the conclusion of trial which is likely to be delayed due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The case pertains to alleged murder of one Vinod Kumar in Delhi’s Brahmpuri area during the communal riots on February 24 last year.

In all, 12 persons are accused in the case.

Additional sessions judge Amitabh Rawat granted relief to the seven accused saying they cannot be incarcerated till the conclusion of the trial, which will take a lot of time and particularly considering the pandemic .

Noting that most of them have remained in the judicial custody for more than a year, the judge said, considering the facts and circumstances, period of custody, the applications of all the accused persons are allowed and they are admitted to bail.

Watch: Delhi 2020 | the Real Conspiracy, Episode 1: What the Delhi Police Chose Not to See

The court directed Sagir Ahmad, Naved Khan, Javed Khan, Arshad, Gulzar, Mohd Imran, and Chand Babu to furnish personal bonds of Rs 20,000 each with one local surety of the like amount as a condition for bail.

They have also been directed to not indulge in any kind of criminal activity, not leave Delhi-NCR without the court’s permission or tamper with the evidence.

Following the riots, the FIR was registered in the case for offences such as murder, attempt to murder, rioting, promoting enmity between different groups on grounds of religion under the Indian Penal Code and Arms Act.

Communal clashes had broken out in north-east Delhi on February 24, 2020 after violence between the Citizenship (Amendment) Act supporters and its protesters spiralled out of control leaving at least 53 people dead and over 700 injured.

(PTI)

BJP Workers, Farmers Clash During ‘Welcome Rally’ Near Protest Site at Ghazipur

The farmers at the site have alleged that BJP workers had used the pretext of a rally to shout “anti-movement slogans” at the farmers’ direction.

New Delhi: A clash took place between farmers protesting against the farm laws at the Ghazipur border for the past eight months and Bharatiya Janata Party workers who had arrived in the area on Wednesday, June 30.

Ghazipur is on the Delhi-Uttar Pradesh border. BJP workers were allegedly leading a welcome procession for party leader Amit Valmiki when a scuffle broke out between them and farmers on the Delhi-Meerut Expressway.

Both sides allegedly fought with sticks, PTI has reported. BJP workers have also alleged that the windshield of a car belonging to one of them was destroyed.

Bharat Kisan Union leader Rakesh Tikait told ANI that BJP workers had initiated the scuffle and that they had been visiting the protest site with flags for the past three days. “They want to start violence. Today they went to the stage where sloganeering happened and started pelting stones,” Tikait said.

The BKU itself has also tweeted that BJP workers had used the pretext of the welcome rally to shout “anti-movement slogans” at the farmers’ direction.


Samyukta Kisan Morcha spokesperson Jagtar Singh Bajwa too claimed that farmers at the Ghazipur border had informed the district administration and government officials of the BJP workers near the protest site.

“They misbehaved with farmers and themselves damaged their vehicles as part of a conspiracy. This conspiracy of the government is not going to succeed because such tactics to end the farmers’ protest have been used in the past too,” Bajwa said.

“We are going to lodge a complaint with the police over today’s (Wednesday’s) incident, and if no action is taken, we shall plan our future strategy accordingly,” he added.

(With PTI inputs)

NIA Files Additional Chargesheet Against Jailed Legislator Akhil Gogoi

The additional chargesheet comes at a time when the hearing in the case is in its final stages and the NIA court was expected to give its verdict shortly.

Guwahati: The National Investigation Agency (NIA) on Tuesday filed an additional chargesheet against independent legislator Akhil Gogoi who has been booked under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, 1967, (UAPA) for his alleged role in violent anti-CAA protests and possible links with the Maoist elements.

Gogoi’s advocate said the investigating agency has presented a “protected witness”, in the Chandmari case for which they (the NIA) have filed an additional chargesheet in the Special NIA Court here.

“We have prepared an objection, which we will file in the NIA court soon,” the advocate added.

The additional chargesheet comes at a time when the hearing in the case is in its final stages and the NIA court was expected to give its verdict shortly.

Gogoi was cleared of charges in the original Chabua police station case, by the NIA Court last week and the hearing for the Chandmari police station case was on at the same court.

He was granted parole last Friday to visit his ailing mother at their Jorhat home and his son, who recently recovered from.COVID-19, at Guwahati.

Gogoi was arrested on December 12, 2019, from Jorhat, during the height of the violent protests against the then proposed Citizenship (Amendment) Act (CAA) as a “preventive measure” in view of the deteriorating law and order situation in the state.

The Raijor Dal president had contested and won the state Assembly election from Sibsagar constituency earlier this year, becoming the first person in the state to be elected from behind the bars.

Reacting to the additional chargesheet, Raijor Dal working president Bhasco De Saikia alleged that the BJP-led government in the state was trying to keep their party president behind the bars.

“Like in the previous chargesheet, this is also based on unnamed witness,” he said.

“An elected government is using the countrys largest investigating agency to meet its end of keeping Gogoi confined,” he claimed.

Saikia further claimed that Gogois popularity is a nightmare for the chief minister and hence, the government was conspiring to keep him jailed as bye-elections are due to several constituencies in the state.

The NIA court had rejected Gogoi’s bail application in the Chandmari police station case in August last year, following which he had filed a petition challenging it in the Gauhati High Court.

The High Court had also rejected his bail application and its order was challenged by Gogoi’s lawyers in the Supreme Court where the judges decided not to “consider the petition at this stage”.

Suspension of Scheduled International Passenger Flights Extended Till July 31

International flights remain suspended, but special international flights remain operative under ‘air bubble’ agreements with 24 countries.

New Delhi: The coronavirus-induced suspension of scheduled international passenger flights has been extended till July 31, aviation regulator DGCA said on Wednesday.

“However, international scheduled flights may be allowed on selected routes by the competent authority on a case-to-case basis,” the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) added.

Scheduled international passenger services have been suspended in India since March 23, 2020, due to the coronavirus pandemic. But special international flights have been operating under the Vande Bharat Mission since May 2020 and under bilateral “air bubble” arrangements with selected countries since July 2020.

India has formed air bubble pacts with around 24 countries including the US, the UK, the UAE, Kenya, Bhutan and France.

Under an air bubble pact between two countries, special international flights can be operated by their airlines between their territories.

The DGCA circular also said that the suspension does not affect the operation of international all-cargo operations and flights specifically approved by it.

Maharashtra: Short-Staffed Hospitals Deprive COVID Patients of Proper Care in Beed

COVID-19 struck like a bolt from the blue for the residents of Beed, who were already struggling with agrarian crisis, leaving them at the mercy of crumbling public health facilities.

“I don’t know what finally caused her death but I know she did not get the attention she deserved.” Subash Kabade says this, describing his sister’s death.

The night before his sister, Lata Survase, died in the Civil Hospital in Maharashtra’s Beed city, a doctor had prescribed two injections to be urgently given to her. So Subash rushed to the medical store just outside and returned with the injections within minutes. But the physician was gone by then.

“He had too many patients to attend to so he moved on to the next ward,” says 25-year-old Subash. “I told the nurse to give my sister the injections but when she looked at Lata’s file, she found no mention of them. I tried to tell her that they were prescribed just a few minutes ago and wouldn’t be in the file.”

But the nurse did not listen to him. When he frantically begged for the injections to be given, “the person in charge of the ward threatened to call the security,” says Subash. Almost an hour was lost in trying to clear up the matter before the injections were given to the patient.

Lata died the next morning, on May 14. She had been in the hospital since April 23, the day she tested positive for Covid-19. “She showed signs of recovery now and then,” says Subash, a lawyer in Beed city. He isn’t certain if the injections, had they been given on time, could have saved her life. But he is sure that the hospital is highly understaffed. “It is affecting the patients,” he says.

The rapid spread of the second wave of Covid-19, which began in March this year, has highlighted the overburdened public health infrastructure in rural India. Short-staffed hospitals, worn-out health workers, and patients deprived of good treatment sum up the state of medical care available to several lakhs of people in the countryside.

Subash Kabade, whose sister died in the Beed Civil Hospital, says that the shortage of staff has affected the patients there. Parth. M.N./ People’s Archive of Rural India.

The impact of the second wave was severe in Beed, which is located in Marathwada, a region already grappling with climate change, water scarcity and an agrarian crisis. As on June 25, 92,400 positive cases and nearly 2,500 deaths deaths were recorded in the district. But the number of cases rapidly rose when the second wave peaked – from about cases 26,400 recorded on April 1 to over 87,400 on May 31. Beed’s healthcare system crumbled under the caseload.

Most people in Beed opt for treatment at a public facility because of the free healthcare. This is especially so because debt from a prolonged farming crisis has left the predominantly agrarian district, which has a population of more than 26 lakhs, in poverty and distress.

Out of the district’s 81 Covid Care Centres, where patients with mild symptoms are first sent, all except three are run by the state government. Patients who don’t recover there are transferred to a Dedicated Covid Health Centre. There are 45 DCHCs in Beed but only 10 are state-run. The administration manages five of the 48 Dedicated Covid Hospitals where critical cases are treated.

The government facilities, however, are severely understaffed.

Even at the peak of the second Covid wave, the state-run Covid centres in Beed did not have enough healthcare workers. The district administration had approved the appointment of temporary staff but many of the posts were not filled.

According to Radhakrishna Pawar, the district health officer (DHO), out of the 33 approved physician posts only nine were recruited. All of the 21 posts for anaesthetists remained vacant. Of the 1,322 staff nurses and 1,004 ‘ward boys’ (ward assistants) posts, 448 and 301, respectively, were not filled.

In total, of the 3,194 approved positions in 16 categories, 34 per cent – 1,085 posts – were vacant, which put the existing staff under tremendous pressure.

So when 38-year-old Balasaheb Kadam found a ventilator bed in the Beed Civil Hospital, his relatives had to carry the oxygen cylinder from the public hospital’s storage room to the ward. “There was no member of the staff around and his oxygen levels were dipping,” says his wife, Jyoti, 33. “His brother carried the cylinder on his shoulder and got the ward assistant to fix it.”

But Balasaheb did not survive. The deputy sarpanch of Yelambghat village, 30 kilometres from the city, Balasaheb “used to be out and about all the time,” says Jyoti. “People would come to him with their problems.”

Balasaheb was spreading awareness about the vaccines in Yelambghat, adds Jyoti, a schoolteacher in the village. “He was trying to ensure that people didn’t have doubts about them. So he was going door to door.” Jyoti believes that it was during one of those times that he was infected with the coronavirus. She will now have to bring up their two daughters, aged 14 and 9 years, on her own.

On April 25, Balasaheb began to feel shortness of breath, an indication of the infection. “The day before that, he was working in our farm. He did not have any co-morbidities but he died within a day at the hospital [on April 26],” says his father Bhagwat Kadam, 65. “He was scared. At such times, patients need doctors to tell them they will be okay. But doctors don’t have time for that now.”

Even if it risks infection, the family members of Covid patients insist on being their caretakers in the ward, especially when they see that the hospital is short of staff. At Beed Civil Hospital, where the authorities have been trying to keep relatives away, arguments regularly break out between patients’ relatives, the hospital staff and the police.

Bhagwat Kadam, Balasaheb’s father, says his son was scared but the doctors didn’t have time to assuage his fears. Parth. M.N./ People’s Archive of Rural India.

The family stays close even after being driven away, waiting for an opportunity to sneak in and see their loved one. “We wouldn’t have to do it if we knew our dear ones were being taken care of,” says 32-year-old Nitin Sathe, sitting on motorbike outside the hospital. “Both my parents are over 60 years old and both are in the hospital. No one will ask them if they want water or if they are hungry.”

It is important to protect the mental state of a scared patient, says Sathe, who works as a bank clerk in the city. “If I am around, I can attend to them, I can reassure them. That will strengthen their mental resolve. When you are left to yourself, you start thinking of all the bad things that could happen. It affects your recovery.”

Sathe points out the irony: “On the one hand, we are forced to stay outside the hospital. On the other, they don’t have enough staff to look after the patients.”

In the second week of May, the lack of staff landed the district administration in an embarrassing spot after a local journalist discovered that a significant number of Covid-19 deaths were missing from the official count.

Somnath Khatal, the journalist who discovered the discrepancy in the official number of Covid deaths reported in Beed. Photo: Parth. M.N./People’s Archives of Rural India.

Somnath Khatal, a 29-year-old reporter for Lokmat newspaper, verified the number of people who were cremated at the crematoriums and compared it with the official figures. He found a difference of 105 deaths. “Within a week of the newsbreak, the district administration had to adjust over 200 deaths in the official figures. Some of them were from 2020,” he says.

DHO Pawar admits the mistake, attributing it to the lack of staff. It was not due to an attempt to downplay the number of cases, he adds. “We have a system in place. Once a person tests positive for Covid-19, we receive a notification at the backend of the Covid portal. The facility where the patient is admitted is supposed to update the entry with the treatment and its outcome,” explains Pawar.

Nitin Sathe sitting on a motorbike outside the hospital while waiting to check on his parents in the hospital’s Covid ward. Parth. M.N./ People’s Archive of Rural India.

But when the number of Covid patients suddenly increased from 25-30 to about 1,500 per day in April, “no one paid attention to the entries in the midst of the overload,” says Pawar. “They were treated as Covid-19 patients, but some of the deaths were just not updated in the portal. We have accepted our mistake since the news report [was published] and updated the number of deaths in the district.”

Though it accepted the mistake, the district administration took the extreme step of initiating action against Subash for allegedly breaking Covid protocols and “dishonouring the dead body” of Lata.

“The hospital staff did an antigen test [on the dead body], which came back negative,” says Subash. “So they allowed me to take the body home.”

Subash had asked the hospital if he could take his sister’s body to her village, Kumbharwadi, in Beed’s Georai taluka , about 35 kilometres from the city. Lata lived there with her husband, Rustum, and their four-year-old son Shreyas. “It was the family’s wish. We wanted to give her a decent funeral.”

But when they were halfway to Kumbharwadi, the hospital phoned Subash, telling him to return with the body. “I told my relatives that we must cooperate with the administration because these are tough times. We took a U-turn and came back with the body.”

But the Civil Hospital filed a first information report charging Subash under the Epidemic Diseases Act, 1897. “If a Covid patient dies at the hospital, there are protocols to be followed. And the relatives in this case broke those protocols,” says Ravindra Jagtap, district magistrate of Beed, adding that the antigen test meant nothing.

Subash Kabade shows his letter to the district collector explaining his side in the hospital’s complaint against him. Parth. M.N./ People’s Archives of Rural India.

Covid protocols require the dead body of a Covid patient to be wrapped in a leak-proof body bag and be directly taken from the hospital to the crematorium for cremation.

Subash says that he took Lata’s body only because the hospital allowed him to. “I am an advocate. I understand the protocols. Why would I go against the hospital and risk my family’s health?”

He is dejected that the hospital didn’t consider the help he provided to its patients and staff in the past. “I must have helped at least 150 patients get admitted at the hospital. Several patients don’t know how to read or write, and they are scared. I helped them fill up forms and to find their way around the hospital. I did what the hospital staff was supposed to do,” says Subash.

Even before Lata had taken ill, Subash was helping patients with the admission process at the Civil Hospital. He says he spent entire days for a month and a half in total, including the weeks his sister was in hospital.

During his time in the hospital taking care of his sister, he once picked up a Covid patient from the floor and put her back on the bed, he says. “She was a senior citizen. She fell off her bed and was lying on the floor but nobody paid any attention. This is the condition of the patients in the hospital.”

A distraught, dejected and angry Subash met me in the lobby of a hotel in Beed because he couldn’t invite me home. “My parents are in shock since my sister died,” he says. “They are not in a position to talk. Even I have not been in my senses. Lata’s son keeps calling me and asks ‘When will aai come home?’ I don’t know what to tell him.”

This article was originally published in the People’s Archive of Rural India on June 26, 2021.

Twitter Employees Booked But BJP MP’s Tweet With Wrong India Map Passes Below UP Police Radar

Here are 11 other reported instances where an incorrect map of India was published – but no police action was sought or taken.

New Delhi: One of four recent FIRs in India against Twitter and its employees pertains to an incorrect map of India on its platform. Though Twitter removed the offending map after it was pointed out on Monday, an FIR was registered against the parent company, Twitter India managing director Manish Maheshwari and one more employee, Amrita Tripathi.

Sharing an incorrect map of India, particularly with reference to the Jammu and Kashmir region, is more common than one might think. In most cases, though, FIRs are not filed – especially if the person or organisation who made the mistake takes the wrong map down. Even when the offending map is not removed, cases are rarely filed if the persons involved have connections with those in power. The case against Twitter, then, is perhaps because of the ongoing stand-off between the platform and the government, rather than the offence itself.

In 2016, the Narendra Modi government was mulling a new law that would entail seven years’ imprisonment and a Rs 100 crore fine for anyone sharing a map that incorrectly marked India’s borders. However, the draft Geospatial Information Regulation Bill ended up in cold storage because of its many controversial provisions.

Here are multiple instances where an incorrect map of India has been used either online or offline – and was not followed up by the police despite the government being aware of the matter.

1. BJP leader Shobha Karandlaje, January 2020

BJP MP from Karnataka, Shobha Karandlaje. spoke at a rally in support of the controversial Citizenship (Amendment) Act in Chikmaglur in January 2020. Behind her on the stage was a large banner carrying a map of India – with the north-western edge of Jammu and Kashmir missing. After the MP tweeted photographs with the map, this error was pointed out by users on Twitter, but no action was taken against Karandlaje or the group who organised the event, the Rashtra Jagarana Samiti.

Karandlaje’s tweet with the incorrect map is still up on Twitter but the UP Police has not seen fit to file a case relating to this.

2. Gujarat government, September 2014

When the Gujarat government distributed copies of a map of Guangdong province in China which incorrectly depicted Arunachal Pradesh as a part of China, the Congress party asked Prime Minister Narendra Modi to apologise. “This is unacceptable for the sovereignty, ethos and foreign policy of the country. We demand that the Prime Minister must make a proper statement on the issue and unequivocally and firmly write to the Chinese President a strong worded letter, which should be made public,” Congress spokesperson Abhishek Manu Singhvi had said at the time.

3. Shashi Tharoor, December 2019

About a month before Karandlaje, Congress leader Shashi Tharoor too had been under fire for a similar mistake. He shared an image on Twitter from an anti-CAA rally he had attended, and that image too showed an incorrect map of India. Tharoor subsequently deleted that tweet. Several BJP leaders, including Amit Malviya and Sambit Patra, had lashed out at him for the mistake, but no police case was filed.

4. Makers of Namaste London, August 2018

The poster for the Parineeti Chopra and Arjun Kapoor-starrer Namaste London had to be recalled because it excluded the Aksai Chin region from the map of India. While the error was widely reported and the poster was changed, no action was taken against the filmmakers.

5. RSS mouthpiece Organiser, March 2015

In March 2015, RSS mouthpiece Organiser apologised after publishing a map of India that showed parts of Pakistan-occupied Kashmir as being in Pakistan. The magazine web edition took the map down, but nothing could be done about the print edition that had already circulated. Congress leader Ghulam Nabi Azad raised the matter in parliament, but the police was not involved.

6. Australia, November 2014

Days ahead of a scheduled G20 meeting in Brisbane, all G20 leaders were shown an inaccurate map of India. India’s foreign secretary at the time raised the issue with the Australian government, which issued an unconditional apology.

7. BBC, January 2021

During a show in January this year, the BBC displayed an incomplete map of India. A day later, the channel apologised and said the mistake would be rectified in future broadcasts.

8. Al Jazeera, April 2015

While the BBC did not face any sort of action from the authorities, Al Jazeera was taken off the air for five days in April 2015 for repeatedly showing an incorrect map of India on air. While the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting took this step and penalised the channel, no police case was filed.

9. WHO, February 2021

The Indian government issued a statement in February this year after the World Health Organisation website showed Jammu and Kashmir as not part of Indian territory on a map. WHO later added a disclaimer to the map about how it was not expressing any opinions on the territory’s legal status.

10. Mark Zuckerberg, May 2015

Facebook founder Mar Zuckerberg posted a world map on his Facebook page in May 2015 that inaccurately depicted India’s borders. After several users pointed out the issue, he deleted his post.

11. Wikipedia, December 2020

The Indian government in December last year asked Wikipedia to remove a map that showed Aksai Chin as part of China. The Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology secretary reportedly wrote to the company, saying that the map must be taken down. Again, there was no police involvement in the case.