Washington: The Joe Biden administration has so far not named two Indian-Americans who had worked for the Democratic campaign for the US presidential elections, allegedly due to their “RSS-BJP links”, according to a report.

The letter written by the 19 organisations describes such people as ‘foreign agents’ of the RSS and BJP.  These people “often claim to be anti-Trump, citing their minority status and the values of the Democratic party. But in India, they stand for the equivalent of Trumpism: Hindu supremacy,” the letter said.

Key Omissions

Sonal Shah: Obama admn ex-staffer, she served in Biden’s unity task force. Her father was Overseas Friends of BJP-USA chief and founded RSS-run Ekal Vidyalaya

Amit Jani: He was the ‘Muslim Outreach’ coordinator of ‘Name Biden’ campaign. His family reportedly has ties with PM Modi and other BJP leaders.

While 20 Indian-Americans have been appointed to the Biden administration, two members of the Democratic party – Sonal Shah, an Obama administration staffer, and Amit Jani, who was part of the Biden campaign team – “have so far been excluded”, the report said.

However, Democratic party sources told the news agency that it was “still really, really early” to claim that Shah and Jani have been kept out of the administration with appointments still being revealed daily.

Their exclusion comes after a coalition of 19 Indian-American organisations had sent a letter to Biden in December 2020, saying “many South Asian-Americans individuals with ties to far-right Hindu organizations in India are affiliated with the Democratic party”. The groups said the Biden administration should have ‘no tolerance’ for such persons.

The letter specifically mentioned Shah and Jani, describing them as individuals “who received funding from or made public statements in support of Hindu supremacist groups”.

Further, the extrapolation that the letter is the reason behind the two persons not being named in the administration yet may not be correct, as per the Democratic source. “I don’t think they are out. I just think they haven’t been given spots yet… if they even want a spot”.

Shah was one of six Indian-Americans who served on the Biden-Sanders “unity task force”. Her father was the president of the US branch of Overseas Friends of BJP and is the founder of RSS-run Ekal Vidyalaya. She was also criticised for raising funds for victims of the 2001 Gujarat earthquake victims on behalf of the Vishwa Hindu Parishad America.

Jani was named as the Biden campaign’s ‘Muslim Outreach’ coordinator, a decision that came under fire when his family’s links to Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and other BJP leaders emerged.

Last March, following the reports of Jani’s family connections with Modi, Khizr Khan, who is known for his speech at the 2016 Democratic Convention, backed Jani and dismissed all the allegations. “These allegations have been made just to create nuisance and discord,” Khan told a diaspora newspaper, India West. Khan, an American of Pakistani origin, had lost his US army captain in Iraq in 2004.

In July 2019, Shah joined the presidential campaign of South Bend mayor and Biden’s nominee for transportation secretary, Pete Buttigieg.

In a response to The Intercept, a Buttigieg spokesperson had referred to her statement when she was on Barack Obama’s transition team that she “would not have associated with VHP of America” if she could have known the role its Indian counterpart would have in the Gujarat riots. “My personal politics has nothing in common with views espoused by the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP), the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), or any such organisation. I’ve never been involved in Indian politics, and never intend to do so,” she had said in 2008.

Among the Indian-Americans who have made it to the 46th US president’s administration are Vivek Murthy, Neera Tanden, Uzra Zeya and Samira Fazili.

Perhaps encouraged by Biden’s statements on Kashmir and the controversial Citizenship Amendment Act, secular Indian-American organisations have lobbied hard to keep people who “advance the ideology and political interests of violent, extremist Hindu nationalist groups in India” out of his administration.

The letter written by the 19 organisations describes such people as ‘foreign agents’ of the RSS and BJP.  These people “often claim to be anti-Trump, citing their minority status and the values of the Democratic party. But in India, they stand for the equivalent of Trumpism: Hindu supremacy,” the letter said.

“Indeed, they practice a peculiar form of identity politics, presenting themselves as spokespeople of the ethnic Hindu minority in the United States, while endorsing the worst forms of Hindu majoritarianism in India. They often use the pretense of fighting American racism, and espouse multiculturalism in the US, but perpetuate a racism of their own in India,” it added.

Anyone who has received funding from or makes public statements in support of the BJP, RSS are “entirely complicit” in the rise of “authoritarianism and ethnonationalist violence in India”, the letter said.

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Catch Akshay Kumar in action, along with Bear Grylls, as the dynamic duo set off on an unexpected journey across Bandipur Tiger Reserve situated in the state of Karnataka. Akshay Kumar is known for performing his own stunts in the movies. With this episode, the viewers will now get to see him perform some breath-taking stunts in the beautiful Indian wilderness. He will be seen drinking elephant poop tea, making a harness out of a rope, learning a unique technique to climb a rope ladder and performing many other exciting survival tasks.

Into The Wild with Bear Grylls and Akshay Kumar streaming  from 11^th September at 8 PM on Discovery Plus. 

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Home Secretary Ajay Bhalla’s mild rebuke for the states on Sunday came after state governments rushed to the railways ministry to run special trains to send all migrant workers home.

Bhalla underlined that the Centre had only made an exception for people who had been stranded due to the lockdown.

“The facilitation envisaged in the aforesaid orders is meant for such distressed persons, but does not extend to those categories of persons, who are otherwise residing normally at places, other than the native places for purposes of work, etc., and who wish to visit their native places in normal course,” his letter to the state chief secretaries said.

This is the first time that the Home Ministry has explicitly, in writing, stressed that the operative word in its order allowing migrants, tourists, students and others was “stranded”.

Cabinet Secretary Rajiv Gauba had, for instance, spelt out in his video conference with the chief secretaries last week that the relaxation shouldn’t result in a free-for-all and states should only allow people who were stranded due to the lockdown to travel from one state to another.

On April 30, Hindustan Times had reported the fine print in the home ministry’s order, ‘In Centre’s 2-page order on letting migrants travel, there is 1 operative word’.

The Centre decided to send the ‘clarification’ in writing on Sunday after an assessment that states, under pressure from the public and opposition, were getting into a race to send, or bring home, as many migrant workers as possible.

“It is clarified that the MHA orders are meant to facilitate movement of such stranded persons, who had moved from their native places/workplaces, just before the lockdown period, but could not return to their native places/workplaces on account of restrictions placed on movement of persons and vehicles as part of lockdown measures,” Ajay Bhalla’s letter, accessed by Hindustan Times, said.

Central government officials said the state governments should have, in the first instance, offered the ride home to 14-lakh people living in relief camps run by the state or non-profit sector.

“They are the people who have been really in distress and are stranded in every sense of the word,” a government official said. He explained that states, which were practically encouraging migrant workers home, should account for the fact that the state’s economy would take longer to revive in the absence of the migrant workforce that powers most industries.

This was one reason why the Centre had been reluctant to run special trains also. It, however, finally relented when the chorus from the states became too loud.

The post “Don’t Send Every Migrant Workers Home” Centre Government U-Turn: States For Missing Fine Print first appeared on Latest News, Breaking News, National News, World News, India News, Bollywood News, Business News, Politics News, Sports News, Entertainment News - CineBuster.

Liquor shops would be allowed to open in green, orange and red zones (except in containment) areas.

“Only 5 non-essential shops can be opened in each lane. Numbers not restricted for essential shops,” ANI quoted a government official as saying.

The Maharashtra Chief Minister’s Office also tweeted a document, which said that liquor shops will be allowed to remain open. The document also carried details of zone-wise activity that is allowed and prohibited.

Important Update

What’s allowed and not allowed in Maharashtra during the extended period of Lockdown#WarAgainstVirus pic.twitter.com/OW8iX0HxXi

— CMO Maharashtra (@CMOMaharashtra) May 3, 2020

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A copy of a railway circular in possession of NDTV reads: “The local government authorities shall handover the tickets to the passengers cleared by them and collect the ticket fare and handover the total amount to the railways.”

With the state governments in charge of issuing the tickets and collecting the fees, many states, mostly those ruled by the opposition, are apprehensive of a political fallout. The states ruled by non-BJP parties have been demanding that the centre bears the cost of travel.

In a tweet today, Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav said it was “highly shameful” that the BJP government was charging the vulnerable labourers for the train ride home.

“Migrants travelling back home being asked to pay for the train rides by the BJP government is highly shameful. It has become clear today that the ruling government waives loans for capitalists and businessmen and supports the rich. It works against those who are poor. At the time of crisis, exploitation is done by money-lenders not by the government,” his Hindi tweet, roughly translated, says.

Speaking to NDTV earlier, Jharkhand Chief Minister Hemant Soren had also made a similar point.

“We should not be asking migrants to pay for the tickets. They are in any case distressed. If the centre does not, then the Jharkhand government will look for ways to make this payment but we will certainly not ask the migrants to pay,” he had said.

This is where the states’ demand for financial assistance comes in.

A senior functionary in the Chhattisgarh government told NDTV that the centre seems to be passing on financial stress to the states at a time when the collection of the Goods and Services Tax is at an all-time low.

“What else is PM Cares for?” he questioned, pointing to the relief fund created in the name of the Prime Minister.

But so far, the centre has made no such announcement.

Earlier this week, the Central government had relented and allowed the transfer of migrants using buses and trains after 36 days of intense criticism and pushback.

Lakhs of migrant workers and others were left stranded – without jobs, money, food or shelter – far from home after PM Modi announced the lockdown on March 25.

After the movement of labourers was allowed earlier this week, the states had asked that the centre run special trains, pointing out that movement of so many people by bus –as suggested by the home ministry – was impractical.

The post Highly Shameful That The Modi Government “Order On States Collecting Migrants” Train Fare, Says Akhilesh Yadav first appeared on Latest News, Breaking News, National News, World News, India News, Bollywood News, Business News, Politics News, Sports News, Entertainment News - CineBuster.

First, imagine that the virus can be defeated without a vaccine. That will lead us to imagine that a lockdown is a cure and, until the cure is complete, a lockdown will stop the spread of the virus. The reality is that a lockdown is not a cure, nor does it stop the spread of the virus. A lockdown is a pause, it may slow the spread of the virus, and it will buy us valuable time to build our medical and health infrastructure, spread awareness and be prepared to deal with the peak number of infected persons who will require hospitalisation. Those who had demanded a lockdown had understood the reality. On May 3, the governments would have got 40 days time to do those things; the question is, do governments need more time?

Second, imagine that the migrant workers who were prevented from going back to their homes are happy to be in their shelter homes, quarantines or camps, are content with the living conditions, and are satisfied with the food. The reality is what the Delhi Police found after inspecting the shelter homes as reported in The Indian Express (April 28).

“Fans not working, and no power back-up; sanitisation of toilets rarely done; most migrants want to leave as their families cannot survive; rude behaviour of civil defence staff; food quality not good; no hand wash and sanitizers; foul smell in toilets; water supply in the toilets only between 7 am and 11 am; one soap for bathing and no detergent for washing clothes; mosquito bites.” If those are the conditions of shelter homes (where the stay is voluntary), don’t imagine what they will be in quarantines and camps (where the stay is involuntary).

Third, imagine that the migrant worker (e.g. in Mumbai or Surat) is happy to remain in his one-room tenement with six-10 others, without a job or work, without money, and without making any remittance to support his family. The reality is that the vast majority of such workers got no assistance from the governments — no cash transfer, no rations. Their only desire is to go home. Uttar Pradesh and some other states took an enlightened approach and sent buses to ferry them to their home states, Bihar refused, and the Central government was non-committal until April 29. Now, Bihar has joined others to demand non-stop trains!

Fourth, imagine that there are no job losses, and that the jobs will continue to be there until the workers are able to return to their workplaces. The reality is what CMIE reported on April 27: that the unemployment rate stood at 21.1% even while labour force participation had fallen to 35.4%. The reality is that once an MSME is shut down, it is not easy to re-start it. The few workers — two to 10 — in the unit may have found other ways to earn a wage or migrated and, even if they are willing to come back, there will be arrears of wages. The unit would have bills to be collected and bills to be paid, and neither is easy after a prolonged shutdown. The unit would have run out of working capital and no bank or NBFC will lend without a credit guarantee. The supply chain would have been interrupted: what is the use of re-opening a dealership if the manufacturer has not resumed production? No one who has never invested his own money to start a business will understand the problems of running a business or the pain of closing it down.

Fifth, imagine that the Central government will keep its promise, made on March 25, that it will soon come out with Financial Action Plan II to help businesses, especially the MSMEs. The reality is that nothing has been done until the time of this writing. We don’t know if the Financial Task Force has made any recommendation. A new committee (if you believe the buzz) to think ‘Big and Bold’ is still thinking. The reality is that banks are flush with funds but they prefer to park them with the RBI than lend to NBFCs or SMEs. NBFCs are fast becoming illiquid and cannot on-lend.

Sixth, imagine that big industries will somehow survive and flourish as before. The reality is that big industries have realised that the old normal is out forever and are in search of a new normal. They are looking for conserving cash, curtailing capital expenditure, optimising capacity utilisation, downsizing their workforce, becoming debt-free, and expanding work-from-home. Big industries will also consolidate, which will result in less competition (e.g. telecom).

Seventh, imagine that the economy will bounce back smartly after the lockdown is lifted and we will see the V-curve. The reality is that the Indian economy did not recover after the demonetisation blunder, it did not recover after the botched-up GST, and will not recover easily after the lockdown is lifted. Even a tick-shaped (3 ) recovery will require hard work, plans, meticulous implementation, money, open markets, smart alliances and international co-operation.

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“The financial position of the bank is highly adverse and unsustainable. There is no concrete revival plan or proposal for merger with another bank. Credible commitment towards revival from the management is not visible,” the RBI said in a statement.

The RBI said the bank is not in a position to pay its present or future depositors and is in violation of regulatory norms for minimum capital requirement.

“The affairs of the bank were and are being conducted in a manner detrimental to the public interest and interest of the depositors and that the general character of the management of the bank is prejudicial to the interest of depositors as also public interest,” RBI said.

“The bank’s efforts for revival have been far from adequate though the bank has been given ample time and opportunity and dispensations. No merger proposal has been received in respect of the bank. Thus, in all likelihood, public interest would be adversely affected if the bank were allowed to carry on its business any further,” the central bank added.

With the cancellation of licence and commencement of liquidation proceedings, the process of paying the depositors of The CKP Co-operative Bank as per the DICGC Act, 1961 will be set in motion, the Reserve Bank said.

Accordingly, on liquidation, every depositor is entitled to repayment of his/her deposits up to a monetary ceiling of Rs 5 lakh from the DICGC.

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While extending the nationwide lockdown for another two weeks, the Ministry of Home Affairs allowed the liquor and tobacco shops to open again in green and orange zones as well as outside the containment areas or hotspots in red zones.

The order is applicable to stand-alone shops. The liquor and tobacco shops inside malls or shopping complexes will remain closed.

The government has, however, said it that the shopkeepers must ensure a two-metre distance between all customers.

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The bus was inaugurated on Friday by Maharashtra Health Minister Rajesh Tope, Environment Minister Aditya Thackeray, along with Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) Commissioner Praveen Pardesi at the National Sports Club of India in Worli via video conference.

Equipped with a full-fledged coronavirus testing lab, the bus also has an x-ray examination facility. Other necessary equipment will also be made available soon. There will be a small chamber inside the bus where tests will be conducted.

“It is the first mobile Covid-19 testing bus for mass screening. It will be using a combination of O2 saturation, AI-based X-rays for detecting novel coronavirus,” the BMC officials said.

The Covid-19 testing bus is also equipped with RT-PCR swab collection facility and will visit various slum locations and help to effectively isolate the high-risk suspects, the BMC said.

The Covid-19 testing bus has been made with the help of Krsnaa diagnostic and IIT Alumni council.

With the help of Cloud Transform, the Radiology department experts and doctors will be able to trace the coronavirus patients easily now.

The BMC is planning to design more such buses.

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